Skip to main content

Theory and Modern Applications

  • Research Article
  • Open access
  • Published:

Periodic solutions of arbitrary length in a simple integer iteration

Abstract

We prove that all solutions to the nonlinear second-order difference equation in integers yn+1 = ay n -yn-1, {a :|a|<2, a≠0,±1}, y0, y1 , are periodic. The first-order system representation of this equation is shown to have self-similar and chaotic solutions in the integer plane.

[123]

References

  1. Clark D, Lewis JT: Symmetric solutions to a Collatz-like system of difference equations. Congr. Numer. 1998, 131: 101–114.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  2. James G, James RC: Mathematics Dictionary. 4th edition. Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York; 1976.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  3. Niven I: Irrational Numbers, The Carus Mathematical Monographs, no. 11. The Mathematical Association of America. Distributed by John Wiley & Sons, New York; 1956.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dean Clark.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Clark, D. Periodic solutions of arbitrary length in a simple integer iteration. Adv Differ Equ 2006, 035847 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1155/ADE/2006/35847

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1155/ADE/2006/35847

Keywords