Let a0 and an be distinct divisors of a natural number m>1, and let a0,a1,a2,…,an be a sequence of natural numbers satisfying ai+1=∣ai±ai−1∣ for 0<i<n If gcd(a0,…,an)=1, prove that there exists a term in the sequence which is smaller than m.
Solution
Solution:
Let us consider the two smallest (distinct) terms of the sequence, p and q. If min{p,q}=1, the claim trivially holds; hence from now on we assume p,q>1.
Lemma 1. There exist indices k and l such that ak=p,al=q and ∣k−l∣≤2.
Proof. Let ak=p and al=q (k<l). Suppose that r=l−k>2. We shall prove by induction on r that for some i, k<i<l, we have ai∈{p,q}. Since ak+3=∣ak+2−ak+1∣=p, we have ak+3=ak+1+ak+2; similarly al−3=al−2+al−1. Let am=maxp<i<qai. It is clear that k+2<m<l−2 (hence l−k⩾6), and also am+2=am−am+1=am−1 and am+1=am−am−1=am−2. This means that the sequence (ai′), defined by ai′=ai for i<m and ai′=ai+3 for i⩾m, satisfies the conditions of the problem; moreover ak′=p and al−3′=q, so by the inductive hypothesis (since (l−3)−k⩾3) we have ai′∈{p,q} for some i (k<i<l−3). Then also ai∈{p,q} or ai+3∈{p,q}, which completes the induction.
Lemma 2. For every i (0⩽i⩽n) there exist xi,yi∈N0 such that ai=xip+yiq and (xi,yi)=1.
Proof. Let us consider the vectors vk=(1,0) and vl=(0,1) and, for every i, define vi+2=εivi+εi′vi+1 if ai+2=εiai+εi′ai+1 (εi,εi′∈{−1,1}). By a simple induction we get that for vi=(xi,yi) we have ai=xip+yiq Since xi+1yi+2−xi+2yi+1=xi+1(εiyi+εi′yi+1)−(εixi+εi′xi+1)yi+1=−εi(xiyi+1−xi+1yi) and similarly xiyi+2−xi+2yi=εi′(xiyi+1−xi+1yi), we have xiyi+1−xi+1yi,xiyi+2−xi+2yi∈{−1,1} for 0⩽i<n and from this (xi,yi)=1. It remains to show that xi,yi⩾0 for all i.
Suppose that xi<0 for some i<k (the case yi<0 and/or i>l is analogous) and consider the largest such i. Since ai>0 and (1), we have yi>0. From (2) and xiyi+1,xiyi+2⩽0⩽xi+1yi,xi+2yi it follows that vi+1, vi+2∈{(0,1),(1,0)}, and then it must be that vi=±(1,−1), i.e. ai=∣p−q∣. However, since p and q are coprime and greater than 1, we have max{p,q}>∣p−q∣∈/{p,q}, contrary to the choice of p and q.
Let m=da0=ean. By Lemma 2 we have m=dx0p+dy0q=exnp+eynq, where (dx0,dy0)=(exn,eyn) since because of a0=an we have y0x0=ynxn. From this it follows that p∣dy0−eyn, so dy0>p or eyn>p; finally, m>pq and therefore min(p,q)<m.
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