Discrete Mathematics & Theoretical Computer Science, Vol 13, No 2 (2011)

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A Combinatorial Approach to Tanny Sequence

Anita Das

Abstract


The Tanny sequence T(i) is a sequence defined recursively as T(i) = T(i - 1 - T(i - 1)) + T(i - 2 - T(i - 2)), T(0) = T(1) = T(2) = 1. In the first part of this paper we give combinatorial proofs of all the results regarding T(i), that Tanny proved in his paper ``A well-behaved cousin of the Hofstadter sequence'', Discrete Mathematics, 105(1992), pp. 227-239, using algebraic means. In most cases our proofs turn out to be simpler and shorter. Moreover, they give a ``visual'' appeal to the theory developed by Tanny. We also generalize most of Tanny's results. In the second part of the paper we present many new results regarding T(i) and prove them combinatorially. Given two integers n and k, it is interesting to know if T(n) = k or not. In this paper we characterize such numbers.

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