The interval decomposition conjecture for Ulam sequences U(1,n)

Let U(a,b)U(a,b) denote the generalized Ulam sequence starting with integers a,ba,b, where each subsequent term is the smallest integer representable as the sum of two distinct preceding terms in exactly one way. For n4n\geq 4, consider the sequence U(1,n)U(1,n).

Interval decomposition conjecture. There exist integer coefficients mi,pi,ki,rim_i,p_i,k_i,r_i such that, for every integer n4n\geq 4,

U(1,n)=i=1[min+pi,kin+ri]Z.U(1,n)=\bigsqcup_{i=1}^{\infty}[m_i n+p_i,k_i n+r_i]\cap\mathbb{Z}.

The conjecture asserts a simple, uniform interval structure for all U(1,n)U(1,n) with n4n\geq4, extending the explicitly observed initial patterns; it was confirmed computationally for thousands of terms but is not established in the supplied text.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Joshua Hinman, Borys Kuca, Alexander Schlesinger and Arseniy Sheydvasser, “The Unreasonable Rigidity of Ulam Sets”, arXiv:1711.00145 (2017).

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