English

A multidimensional continued fraction generalization of Stern's diatomic sequence

Combinatorics 2013-09-12 v2 Number Theory

Abstract

Continued fractions are linked to Stern's diatomic sequence 0,1,1,2,1,3,2,3,1,4,... (given by the recursion relation a_2n=a_n and a_{2n+1} = a_n + a_{n+1}, where a_0=0 and a_1=1), which has long been known. Using a particular multidimensional continued fraction algorithm (the Farey algorithm), we will generalize the diatomic sequence to a collection of numbers that quite naturally should be called the triatomic sequence (or a two-dimensional Pascal with memory sequence). As continued fractions and the diatomic sequence can be thought of as coming from systematic subdivisions of the unit interval, this new triatomic sequence will arise by a systematic subdivision of a triangle. We will discuss some of the algebraic properties for the tri-atomic sequence.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1206.6685,
  title  = {A multidimensional continued fraction generalization of Stern's diatomic sequence},
  author = {Thomas Garrity},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1206.6685},
  year   = {2013}
}

Comments

31 pages, 8 figures, Change in title and major changes in exposition

R2 v1 2026-06-21T21:27:26.270Z