English

On second order linear sequences of composite numbers

Number Theory 2018-12-20 v1

Abstract

In this paper we present a new proof of the following 2010 result of Dubickas, Novikas, and Siurys: Let (a,b)Z2(a,b)\in \mathbb{Z}^2 and let (xn)n0(x_n)_{n\ge 0} be the sequence defined by some initial values x0x_0 and x1x_1 and the second order linear recurrence \begin{equation*} x_{n+1}=ax_n+bx_{n-1} \end{equation*} for n1n\ge 1. Suppose that b0b\neq 0 and (a,b)(2,1),(2,1)(a,b)\neq (2,-1), (-2, -1). Then there exist two relatively prime positive integers x0x_0, x1x_1 such that xn|x_n| is a composite integer for all nNn\in \mathbb{N}. The above theorem extends a result of Graham who solved the problem when (a,b)=(1,1)(a,b)=(1,1).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1812.08041,
  title  = {On second order linear sequences of composite numbers},
  author = {Dan Ismailescu and Adrienne Ko and Celine Lee and Jae Yong Park},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1812.08041},
  year   = {2018}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-23T06:48:01.470Z