Difference Equations and Divisibility Properties of Sequences

Abstract

There are many different ways of defining a sequence in terms of solutions to difference equations. In fact, if a sequence satisfies one recurrence then it satisfies an infinite number of recurrences. Arithmetic properties of an integral sequence are often studied by direct methods based on the combinatorial or algebraic definition of the numbers or using their generating function. The rational generating function is the main tool in obtaining various difference equations with coefficients and initial values exhibiting divisibility patterns that can imply particular arithmetic properties of the solutions. In this process, we face the challenging task of finding difference equations that are relevant to the divisibility properties by transforming the original rational generating function. As a matter of fact, it is not necessarily the simple difference equation that helps the most in proving the properties. We illustrate this process on several examples and a sequence involving a p -sected binomial sum of the form y n = y n ( p , a )= ~ k =0 X n kp a k where p is an arbitrary prime. Let 𝜌 p ( m ) denote the exponent of the highest power of a prime p which divides m . Recently, the author obtained lower bounds for 𝜌 p ( y n ) based on recurrence relations of order p and p m 1. The cases with tight bounds have also been characterized. In this paper, we prove that 𝜌 p ( y np ( p , a ))= n for 𝜌 p ( a +1)=1, p S 3. We obtain alternative difference equations of order p 2 for y n and order p for the p -sected sequence y np by a generating function based method. We also extend general divisibility results relying on the arithmetic properties of the coefficients and initial values.