The golden ratio in towers of tiles (Q353322)

In the present paper, the author studies a game whose rules can be described as follows: We start with a finite sequence of positive integers \(a_1, \ldots, a_n\). This sequence is thought to be extended to infinity by appending infinitely many zeros to the right. In the first step, we cancel \(a_1\) and increase all \(a_1\) members of the sequence that lie to the right of \(a_1\) by one. For instance, \(5, 2, 3, 4\) is transformed into \(3, 4, 5, 1, 1\), and we iterate the process. This process ends in periodic cycles. The author studies the properties of the sequences within these cycles. He shows that these properties (such as the length of the cycle) crucially depend on \(\sum a_i\). In the second part of the paper, the starting configuration \(1, 2, 3, 4, \ldots, n\) is examined (for instance, \(1,2,3,4 \mapsto 3,3,4 \mapsto 4,5,1, \mapsto 6, 2, 1, 1 \mapsto 3, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1 \mapsto 3, 3, 2, 1, 1 \mapsto 4, 3, 2, 1\) and cycle length one). The author shows that the number of transformations \(k(n)\) in the precycle is given by the lower Wythoff sequence, i.e., \(k(n)=\lfloor n\phi \rfloor\) with the golden ratio \(\phi\).