On Tribonacci Sequences

Abstract: Let a tribonacci sequence be a sequence of integers satisfying

a_{k} = a_{k - 1} + a_{k - 2} + a_{k - 3}

for all

k g e 4

. For any positive integers

k

and

n

, denote by

f_{k} (n)

the number of tribonacci sequences with

a_{1}, a_{2}, a_{3} > 0

and with

a_{k} = n

. For all

n

, there is a maximum

k

such that

f_{k} (n)

is non-zero. Answering a question of Spiro cite{Spiro}, we show that there is a finite upper bound (we specifically prove 561001) on

f_{k} (n)

for any positive integer

n g e 3

and this maximum

k

. We do this by showing that

f_{k} (n)

has transitions in

n

around constant multiples of

p h i^{3 k / 2}

(where

p h i

is the real root of

p h i^{3} = p h i^{2} + p h i + 1

): there exists a constant

C

such that

f_{k} (n) > 0

whenever

n > C p h i^{3 k / 2}

and for any constant

T

, the values of

f_{k} (n)

with

n < T p h i^{3 k / 2}

have an upper bound independent of

k

.

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