Decomposition of Beatty and complementary sequences (Q6861668)

\(A\) and \(B\) are called complementary sets of natural numbers if \(A\cap B=\emptyset\) and \(A\cup B=\mathbb N\). A set whose terms are given by \(b_n=[n\beta]\) for some \(\beta>0\) is called a Beatty sequence. In this paper, the formula \([n\phi^2]-[n\phi]=n\), which was proved by \textit{W. A. Wythoff} [Nieuw Arch. Wiskd., II. Ser. 7, 199--202 (1906; JFM 37.0261.03)] is generalized to any pair of complementary Beatty sequences \(A\) and \(B\) with irrational slopes \(\beta>2\) and \(\alpha\) as follows: \N\[\N[n\beta]-[n\alpha]=[n(\beta-2)]+[n(2-\alpha)]+1.\N\]\NMoreover, it is proved that the two quantities in the brackets on the right-hand side of the equality count the number of integers that belong to \(A\) and \(B\), respectively, among those integers lying in the half-open interval \([a_n, b_n)\).\N\NBy introducing the novel Minimum Excluded with Skipping (MES) algorithm, the results in this paper are proved by using combinatorial arguments, basic analytic techniques, and standard properties of Beatty and Sturmian sequences.