Related papers: Small gaps in the Ulam sequence
`Terquem's problem' is a name given in the twentieth century to the problem of enumerating certain integer sequences whose entries alternate in parity. In particular, this problem asks for the count of strictly increasing length $m$…
In this paper we consider monic polynomials such that their coefficients coincide with their zeros. These polynomials were first introduced by S. Ulam. We combine methods of algebraic geometry and dynamical systems to prove several results.…
Let $n$ be a positive integer and $f(x)$ be a polynomial with nonnegative integer coefficients. We prove that ${\rm lcm}_{\lceil n/2\rceil \le i\le n} \{f(i)\}\ge 2^n$ except that $f(x)=x$ and $n=1, 2, 3, 4, 6$ and that $f(x)=x^s$ with…
We address the question of how a localized microscopic defect, especially if it is small with respect to certain dynamic parameters, affects the macroscopic behavior of a system. In particular we consider two classical exactly solvable…
A neat 1972 result of Pohl asserts that [3n/2]-2 comparisons are sufficient, and also necessary in the worst case, for finding both the minimum and the maximum of an n-element totally ordered set. The set is accessed via an oracle for…
Let $(L_n)_{n \geq 1}$ be the sequence of Lucas numbers, defined recursively by $L_1 := 1$, $L_2 := 3$, and $L_{n + 2} := L_{n + 1} + L_n$, for every integer $n \geq 1$. We determine the asymptotic behavior of $\log \operatorname{lcm} (L_1…
The interval number of a graph $G$ is the minimum $k$ such that one can assign to each vertex of $G$ a union of $k$ intervals on the real line, such that $G$ is the intersection graph of these sets, i.e., two vertices are adjacent in $G$ if…
A 1971 conjecture of Graham (later repeated by Erd\H{o}s and Graham) asserts that every set $A \subseteq \mathbb{F}_p \setminus \{0\}$ has an ordering whose partial sums are all distinct. We prove this conjecture for sets of size $|A|…
Let f(x_1,x_2,...,x_m) = u_1x_1+u_2 x_2+... + u_mx_m be a linear form with positive integer coefficients, and let N_f(k) = min{|f(A)| : A \subseteq Z and |A|=k}. A minimizing k-set for f is a set A such that |A|=k and |f(A)| = N_f(k). A…
The family of Shallit sequences consists of the Lucas sequences satisfying the recurrence $U_{n+2}(k)=(4k+2)U_{n+1}(k) -U_n(k),$ with initial values $U_0(k)=0$ and $U_1(k)=1$ and with $k\ge 1$ arbitrary. For every fixed $k$ the integers…
We consider the problem of finding small prime gaps in various sets of integers $\mathcal{C}$. Following the work of Goldston-Pintz-Yildirim, we will consider collections of natural numbers that are well-controlled in arithmetic…
The three gap theorem was originally a conjecture by Steinhaus, who asserted that there are at most three distinct gap lengths in the fractional parts of the sequence {\alpha},{2}{\alpha},{\cdots},{N}{\alpha} for any integer {N} and real…
We introduce an infinite set of integer mappings that generalize the well-known Collatz-Ulam mapping and we conjecture that an infinite subset of these mappings feature the remarkable property of the Collatz conjecture, namely that they…
Let $G=(\mathbb Z/n\mathbb Z) \oplus (\mathbb Z/n\mathbb Z)$. Let $\mathsf {s}_{\leq k}(G)$ be the smallest integer $\ell$ such that every sequence of $\ell$ terms from $G$, with repetition allowed, has a nonempty zero-sum subsequence with…
This thesis is devoted to studying estimates of the least common multiple of some integer sequences. Our study focuses on effective bounding of the $\mathrm{lcm}$ of some class of quadratic sequences, as well as arithmetic progressions and…
The Three Gap Theorem states that for any $\alpha \in \mathbb{R}$ and $N \in \mathbb{N}$, the fractional parts of $\{ 0\alpha, 1\alpha, \dots, (N - 1)\alpha \}$ partition the unit circle into gaps of at most three distinct lengths. We prove…
On the set of positive integers, we consider the iterative process that maps $n$ to either $\frac{3n+1}{2}$ or $\frac{n}{2}$ depending on the parity of $n$. The Collatz conjecture states that all such sequences eventually enter the trivial…
It is well-known that any sequence of at least N integers contains a subsequence whose sum is 0 (mod N). However, there can be very few subsequences with this property (e.g. if the initial sequence is just N 1's, then there is only one…
The Kolakoski sequence is the unique infinite sequence with values in $\{1,2\}$ and first term $1$ which equals the sequence of run-lengths of itself, we call this $K(1,2).$ We define $K(m,n)$ similarly. A well-known conjecture is that the…
We are interested in the maximal number of distinct squares in a word. This problem was introduced by Fraenkel and Simpson, who presented a bound of 2n for a word of length n, and conjectured that the bound was less than n. Being that the…