On the asymptotic behavior of \(x_{n+1}=a_{n} x_{n}/x_{n-1}\) (Q1874442)

The authors investigate asymptotic properties of solutions of the second order nonlinear difference equation \[ x_{n+1}=\frac{a_nx_n}{x_{n-1}}, \tag{*} \] where \(a_n\) is a sequence of nonzero real numbers. The results presented in the paper are motivated by an open problem posed by \textit{N. Kulenovic} and \textit{G. Ladas} [Dynamics of second order difference equations, Chapman and Hall/CRC Press (2002; Zbl 0981.39011), Open problem 3.4.5]. First, necessary and sufficient conditions on the sequence \(a_n\) are given which guarantee periodicity of all solutions of (*). Then the attention is devoted to sufficient conditions for asymptotic periodicity of solution and the last part of the paper deals with the problem when all solutions converge to zero. Some new open problems are formulated.