The Comma Sequence is Finite in Other Bases

Fuente: arXiv
Enregistré dans:
Détails bibliographiques
Auteurs principaux: Dougherty-Bliss, Robert, Ter-Saakov, Natalya
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2024
Sujets:
Accès en ligne:
Tags: Ajouter un tag
Pas de tags, Soyez le premier à ajouter un tag!
_version_ 1866912046953529344
author Dougherty-Bliss, Robert
Ter-Saakov, Natalya
author_facet Dougherty-Bliss, Robert
Ter-Saakov, Natalya
contents The comma sequence (1, 12, 35, 94, ...) is the lexicographically earliest sequence such that the difference of consecutive terms equals the concatenation of the digits on either side of the comma separating them. The behavior of a "generalized comma sequence" depends on the base the numbers are written in, as well as the sequence's initial values. We provide a computational proof that all comma sequences in bases 3 through 633 are finite. Relying on a combinatorial conjecture, Angelini et al. estimated that the final element of a comma sequence in base b should be roughly exp(O(b)). We prove their conjecture, but provide evidence that the correct estimate is actually exp(O(b log b)).
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2408_03434
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The Comma Sequence is Finite in Other Bases
Dougherty-Bliss, Robert
Ter-Saakov, Natalya
Number Theory
Combinatorics
11B37, 11B75
The comma sequence (1, 12, 35, 94, ...) is the lexicographically earliest sequence such that the difference of consecutive terms equals the concatenation of the digits on either side of the comma separating them. The behavior of a "generalized comma sequence" depends on the base the numbers are written in, as well as the sequence's initial values. We provide a computational proof that all comma sequences in bases 3 through 633 are finite. Relying on a combinatorial conjecture, Angelini et al. estimated that the final element of a comma sequence in base b should be roughly exp(O(b)). We prove their conjecture, but provide evidence that the correct estimate is actually exp(O(b log b)).
title The Comma Sequence is Finite in Other Bases
topic Number Theory
Combinatorics
11B37, 11B75
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.03434