English

Pairs of intertwined integer sequences

Number Theory 2025-09-11 v2 Combinatorics

Abstract

In previous work we computed the number Cn(q)C_n(q) of ideals of codimension nn of the algebra Fq[x,y,x1,y1]{\mathbb{F}}_q[x,y,x^{-1}, y^{-1}] of two-variable Laurent polynomials over a finite field: it turned out that Cn(q)C_n(q) is a palindromic polynomial of degree 2n2n in qq, divisible by (q1)2(q-1)^2. The quotient Pn(q)=Cn(q)/(q1)2P_n(q) = C_n(q)/(q-1)^2 is a palindromic polynomial of degree 2n22n-2. For each n1n\geq 1 let Pn(X)Z[X]{\overline{P}}_n(X) \in {\mathbb{Z}}[X] be the degree n1n-1 polynomial such that Pn(q+q1)=Pn(q)/qn1{\overline{P}}_n(q+q^{-1}) = P_n(q)/q^{n-1}. In this note we show that for any integer NN the integer value Pn(N){\overline{P}}_n(N) is close to the value at NN of the degree n1n-1 polynomial Fn1(X)=1+k=1n1Tk(X)F_{n-1}(X) = 1 + \sum_{k=1}^{n-1} \, {\overline{T}}_k(X), which is a sum of monic versions Tk(X){\overline{T}}_k(X) of Chebyshev polynomials of the first kind. We give a precise formula for Pn(X){\overline{P}}_n(X) as a linear combination of Fk(X)F_k(X)'s, each appearance of the latter being parametrized by an odd divisor of nn. As a consequence, Pn(X)=Fn1(X){\overline{P}}_n(X) = F_{n-1}(X) if and only if nn is a power of 22. We exhibit similar formulas for Cn(q)C_n(q).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2507.15780,
  title  = {Pairs of intertwined integer sequences},
  author = {Christian Kassel and Christophe Reutenauer},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2507.15780},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

20 pages. Version 2: Propositions 2.1 and 3.1 added; one reference added and Remark 4.7 modified

R2 v1 2026-07-01T04:11:44.493Z