OFFSET
1,3
COMMENTS
From Samuel Harkness, Mar 11 2023: (Start)
Observations:
Record values k > 2 seem to occur at the following places:
First k for k == 0 (mod 3) occurs at n = 2^(k/3+2) + k/3 - 4;
First k for k == 1 (mod 3) occurs at n = 2^((k-1)/3+2) + (k-1)/3 - 3;
First k for k == 2 (mod 3) occurs at n = 3*(2^((k+1)/3)) + (k-14)/3.
For any value k, frequency(k) ~= 2*frequency(3+k). For any value j >= 0, frequency(2+j) ~= frequency(3+j) ~= frequency(4+j).
This sequence contains many recurring strings. For example, {1, 3, 4, 1, 2} occurs 12499 times in the first 100000 terms. From its 5th occurrence at a(40) through its 64th occurrence at a(517), the number of terms between each {1, 3, 4, 1, 2} minus one gives
{1 3 1 4 ...}
{... 1 2 1 4 1 2 1 5 ...}
{... 1 2 1 3 1 2 1 5 1 2 1 3 1 2 1 6 ...
{... 1 2 1 3 1 2 1 4 1 2 1 3 1 2 1 6 1 2 1 3 1 2 1 4 1 2 1 3 1 2 1 7 ...}
(End)
LINKS
Samuel Harkness, Table of n, a(n) for n = 1..10000
Samuel Harkness, MATLAB program
EXAMPLE
a(6)=4 because in the sequence so far (1, 1, 2, 1, 3), the most recent term with the same number of occurrences as a(5)=3 is a(3)=2. Between a(3) and a(5), (2, 1, 3), the smallest missing number is 4, so a(6)=4.
a(8)=2 because between a(7)=1 and the previous value with the same frequency count a(4)=1 (1, 3, 4, 1), the smallest missing number is 2, so a(8)=2.
PROG
(MATLAB) See Links section.
CROSSREFS
KEYWORD
nonn
AUTHOR
Neal Gersh Tolunsky, Mar 11 2023
STATUS
approved