Call a nonnegative integer representable if it equals the sum of several (possibly 0 or 1) distinct terms of the sequence. We say that two nonnegative integers b and c are equivalent (written as b∼c) if they are either both representable or both non-representable.
One can easily compute (or check by induction) that
Sn−1:=a0+a1+⋯+an−1=2n+2⌈n/2⌉+2⌊n/2⌋−3.
In particular, S2k−1=22k+2k+1−3. Note that, if n≥3, then 2⌈n/2⌉>3, so
Sn−1>2n+2⌈n/2⌉=an.
Also notice that Sn−1−an=2⌈n/2⌉−3<an. The main tool of the solution is the following claim.
Claim 1. If Sn−1−an<b<an for some n≥3, then b∼Sn−1−b.
Proof. If b is representable, then since b<an, b must be the sum of some subset of {a0,a1,…,an−1}. So Sn−1−b is the sum of the complement.
Conversely, notice that Sn−1−an<Sn−1−b<an, so similarly, if Sn−1−b is representable, then so is b. □
Proof. Similar to the proof of Claim 1, if an can be represented as the sum of two or more distinct terms, then an must be the sum of some subset of {a0,a1,…,an−1}. So Sn−1−an is the sum of the complement. Conversely, since Sn−1−an<an, so if representable, Sn−1−an is represented by a subset of {a0,a1,…,an−1} and hence an is representable by the complement. □
By Claim 2, it suffices to find infinitely many representable and non-representable numbers of the form 2t−3
Claim 3. For every t≥3, we have 2t∼24t−6−3 and 24t−6>2t−3.
Proof. Since S2t−3−a2t−2=2t−1−3<2t−3<a2t−2, by Claim 1, we have
2t−3∼S2t−3−(2t−3)=22t−2.
And since S4t−7−a4t−6=22t−3−3<22t−2<a4t−6, by Claim 1, we have
22t−2∼S4t−7−22t−2=24t−6−3.
Therefore, 2t−3∼24t−5−3. The inequality follows from t≥3 □
Since 23−3=5=a0+a1 is representable, and easy to check that
27−3=125∼S6−125=24∼S4−24=17
is non-representable. So by Claim 3, there are infinitely many representable and non-representable numbers of the form 2t−3.