login

Year-end appeal: Please make a donation to the OEIS Foundation to support ongoing development and maintenance of the OEIS. We are now in our 61st year, we have over 378,000 sequences, and we’ve reached 11,000 citations (which often say “discovered thanks to the OEIS”).

A008611
a(n) = a(n-3) + 1, with a(0)=a(2)=1, a(1)=0.
44
1, 0, 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 2, 3, 4, 3, 4, 5, 4, 5, 6, 5, 6, 7, 6, 7, 8, 7, 8, 9, 8, 9, 10, 9, 10, 11, 10, 11, 12, 11, 12, 13, 12, 13, 14, 13, 14, 15, 14, 15, 16, 15, 16, 17, 16, 17, 18, 17, 18, 19, 18, 19, 20, 19, 20, 21, 20, 21, 22, 21, 22, 23, 22, 23, 24, 23, 24, 25, 24, 25, 26, 25, 26, 27, 26, 27, 28
OFFSET
0,4
COMMENTS
Molien series of 2-dimensional representation of cyclic group of order 3 over GF(2).
One step back, two steps forward.
The crossing number of the graph C(n, {1,3}), n >= 8, is [n/3] + n mod 3, which gives this sequence starting at the first 4. [Yang Yuansheng et al.]
A Chebyshev transform of A078008. The g.f. is the image of (1-x)/(1-x-2x^2) (g.f. of A078008) under the Chebyshev transform A(x)-> 1/(1+x^2))A(x/(1+x^2)). - Paul Barry, Oct 15 2004
A047878 is an essentially identical sequence. - Anton Chupin, Oct 24 2009
Rhyme scheme of Dante Alighieri's "Divine Comedy." - David Gaita, Feb 11 2011
A194960 results from deleting the first four terms of A008611. Note that deleting the first term or first four terms of A008611 leaves a concatenation of segments (n, n+1, n+2); for related concatenations, see
A008619, (n,n+1) after deletion of first term;
A053737, (n,n+1,n+2,n+3) beginning with n=0;
A053824, (n to n+4) beginning with n=0. - Clark Kimberling, Sep 07 2011
It appears that a(n) is the number of roots of x^(n+1) + x + 1 inside the unit circle. - Michel Lagneau, Nov 02 2012
Also apparently for n >= 2: a(n) is the largest remainder r that results from dividing n+2 by 1..n+2 more than once, i.e., a(n) = max(i, A072528(n+2,i)>1). - Ralf Stephan, Oct 21 2013
Number of n-element subsets of [n+1] whose sum is a multiple of 3. a(4) = 1: {1,2,4,5}. - Alois P. Heinz, Feb 06 2017
It appears that a(n) is the number of roots of the Fibonacci polynomial F(n+2,x) strictly inside the unit circle of the complex plane. - Michel Lagneau, Apr 07 2017
For the proof of the preceding conjecture see my comments under A008615 and A049310. Chebyshev S(n,x) = i^n*F(n+1,-i*x), with i = sqrt(-1). - Wolfdieter Lang, May 06 2017
The sequence is the interleaving of three sequences: the positive integers (A000027), the nonnegative integers (A001477), and the positive integers, in that order. - Guenther Schrack, Nov 07 2020
a(n) is the number of multiples of 3 between n and 2n. - Christian Barrientos, Dec 20 2021
a(n) is the least number of football games a team has to play to be able to get n-1 points, where a win is 3 points, a draw is 1 point, and a loss is 0 points. - Sigurd Kittilsen, Dec 01 2022
REFERENCES
D. J. Benson, Polynomial Invariants of Finite Groups, Cambridge, 1993, p. 103.
LINKS
Cristian Cobeli, Aaditya Raghavan, and Alexandru Zaharescu, On the central ball in a translation invariant involutive field, arXiv:2408.01864 [math.NT], 2024. See p. 7.
Gerard P. Michon, Counting Polyhedra.
Yang Yuansheng et al., The crossing number of C(n; {1,3}), Discr. Math. 289 (2004), 107-118.
FORMULA
a(n) = a(n-3) + 1.
a(n) = (n-1) - 2*floor((n-1)/3).
G.f.: (1 + x^2 + x^4)/(1 - x^3)^2.
After the initial term, has form {n, n+1, n+2} for n=0, 1, 2, ...
From Paul Barry, Mar 18 2004: (Start)
a(n) = Sum_{k=0..n} (-1)^floor(2*(k-2)/3);
a(n) = 4*sqrt(3)*cos(2*Pi*n/3 + Pi/6)/9 + (n+1)/3. (End)
From Paul Barry, Oct 15 2004: (Start)
G.f.: (1 - x + x^2)/((1 + x + x^2)*(x-1)^2);
a(n) = Sum_{k=0..floor(n/2)} binomial(n-k, k)*A078008(n-2k)*(-1)^k. (End)
a(n) = -a(-2-n) for all n in Z.
Euler transform of length 6 sequence [0, 1, 2, 0, 0, -1]. - Michael Somos, Jan 23 2014
a(n) = ((n-1) mod 3) + floor((n-1)/3). - Wesley Ivan Hurt, May 18 2014
PSUM transform of A257075. - Michael Somos, Apr 15 2015
a(n) = A194960(n-3), n >= 0, with extended A194960. See the a(n) formula two lines above. - Wolfdieter Lang, May 06 2017
From Guenther Schrack, Nov 07 2020: (Start)
a(n) = (3*n + 3 + 2*(w^(2*n)*(1 - w) + w^n*(2 + w)))/9, where w = (-1 + sqrt(-3))/2, a primitive third root of unity;
a(n) = (n + 1 + 2*A049347(n))/3;
a(n) = (2*n - A330396(n-1))/3. (End)
E.g.f.: (3*exp(x)*(1 + x) + exp(-x/2)*(6*cos(sqrt(3)*x/2) - 2*sqrt(3)*sin(sqrt(3)*x/2)))/9. - Stefano Spezia, May 06 2022
Sum_{n>=2} (-1)^n/a(n) = 3*log(2) - 1. - Amiram Eldar, Sep 10 2023
EXAMPLE
G.f. = 1 + x^2 + 2*x^3 + x^4 + 2*x^5 + 3*x^6 + 2*x^7 + 3*x^8 + 4*x^9 + ...
MAPLE
with(numtheory): for n from 1 to 70 do:it:=0:
y:=[fsolve(x^n+x+1, x, complex)] : for m from 1 to nops(y) do : if abs(y[m])< 1 then it:=it+1:else fi:od: printf(`%d, `, it):od:
A008611:=n->(n-1)-2*floor((n-1)/3); seq(A008611(n), n=0..50); # Wesley Ivan Hurt, May 18 2014
MATHEMATICA
With[{nn=30}, Riffle[Riffle[Range[nn], Range[0, nn-1]], Range[nn], 3]] (* or *) RecurrenceTable[{a[0]==a[2]==1, a[1]==0, a[n]==a[n-3]+1}, a, {n, 90}] (* Harvey P. Dale, Nov 06 2011 *)
LinearRecurrence[{1, 0, 1, -1}, {1, 0, 1, 2}, 100] (* Vladimir Joseph Stephan Orlovsky, Feb 23 2012 *)
a[ n_] := Quotient[n - 1, 3] + Mod[n + 2, 3]; (* Michael Somos, Jan 23 2014 *)
PROG
(Magma) [(n-1)-2*Floor((n-1)/3): n in [0..90]]; // Vincenzo Librandi, Aug 21 2011
(Haskell)
a008611 n = n' + mod r 2 where (n', r) = divMod (n + 1) 3
a008611_list = f [1, 0, 1] where f xs = xs ++ f (map (+ 1) xs)
-- Reinhard Zumkeller, Nov 25 2013
(PARI) {a(n) = (n-1) \ 3 + (n+2) % 3}; /* Michael Somos, Jan 23 2014 */
KEYWORD
nonn,easy,nice
AUTHOR
N. J. A. Sloane, Mar 15 1996
STATUS
approved