A Combinatorial interpretation of Hofstadter's G-sequence

Abstract

We give a combinatorial interpretation of a classical meta-Fibonacci sequence defined by G(n) = n - G(G(n-1)) with the initial condition G(1) = 1, which appears in Hofstadter's 'Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid'. The interpretation is in terms of an infinite labelled tree. We then show a few corollaries about the behaviour of the sequence G(n) directly from the interpretation.