Journal of Integer Sequences, Vol. 28 (2025), Article 25.6.6

A New Combinatorial Interpretation of Partial Sums of m-Step Fibonacci Numbers


Erik Bates and Blan Morrison
Department of Mathematics
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695
USA

Mason Rogers
Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA 02139
USA

Arianna Serafini
Bridgewater Associates
Westport, CT 06880
USA

Anav Sood
Department of Statistics
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305
USA

Abstract:

The sequence of partial sums of Fibonacci numbers, beginning with 2, 4, 7, 12, 20, 33,..., has several combinatorial interpretations (OEIS A000071). For instance, the n-th term in this sequence is the number of length-n binary words that avoid 110. This paper proves a related but new interpretation. Given a length-3 binary word—called the keyword—we say two length-n binary words are equivalent if one can be obtained from the other by some sequence of substitutions: each substitution replaces an instance of the keyword with its negation, or vice versa. We prove that the number of induced equivalence classes is again the $n$-th term in the aforementioned sequence. When the keyword has length m+1 (instead of 3), the same result holds with m-step Fibonacci numbers. What makes this result surprising—and distinct from the previous interpretation—is that it does not depend on the keyword, despite the fact that the sizes of the equivalence classes do. On this final point, we prove several results on the structure of equivalence classes, and also pose a variety of open problems.


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(Concerned with sequences A000012 A000045 A000071 A000073 A000078 A000119 A008937 A172119.)


Received July 29 2025; revised versions received July 30 2025; September 29 2025. Published in Journal of Integer Sequences, November 24 2025.


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