Journal of Integer Sequences, Vol. 20 (2017), Article 17.7.3

A Slow Relative of Hofstadter's Q-Sequence


Nathan Fox
Department of Mathematics
Rutgers University
110 Frelinghuysen Rd.
Piscataway, NJ 08854
USA

Abstract:

Hofstadter's Q-sequence remains an enigma fifty years after its introduction. Initially, the terms of the sequence increase monotonically by 0 or 1 at a time. But the 12th term exceeds the 11th by two, and monotonicity fails shortly thereafter. In this paper, we add a third term to Hofstadter's recurrence in the most natural way. We show that this new recurrence, along with a suitable initial condition that naturally generalizes Hofstadter's initial condition, generates a sequence whose terms all increase monotonically by 0 or 1 at a time. Furthermore, we give a complete description of the resulting frequency sequence, which allows the nth term of our sequence to be computed efficiently. We conclude by showing that our sequence cannot be easily generalized.


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(Concerned with sequences A004001 A005185 A046699 A057198 A063882 A087777 A278055.)


Received January 2 2017; revised version received June 26 2017. Published in Journal of Integer Sequences, July 2 2017.


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