New Tribonacci Recurrence Relations and Addition Formulas

Abstract

Only one three-term recurrence relation, namely, $W_{r}=2W_{r-1}-W_{r-4}$, is known for the generalized Tribonacci numbers, $W_r$, $r\in\mathbb{Z}$, defined by $W_{r}=W_{r-1}+W_{r-2}+W_{r-3}$ and \mbox{$W_{-r}=W_{-r+3}-W_{-r+2}-W_{-r+1}$}, where $W_0$, $W_1$ and $W_2$ are given, arbitrary integers, not all zero. Also, only one four-term addition formula is known for these numbers, which is, $W_{r + s} = T_{s - 1} W_{r - 1} + (T_{s - 1} + T_{s-2} )W_r + T_s W_{r + 1}$, where $({T_r})_{r\in\mathbb{Z}}$ is the Tribonacci sequence, a special case of the generalized Tribonacci sequence, with $W_0=T_0=0$ and $W_1=W_2=T_1=T_2=1$. In this paper we discover three new three-term recurrence relations and two identities from which a plethora of new addition formulas for the generalized Tribonacci numbers may be discovered. We obtain a simple relation connecting the Tribonacci numbers and the Tribonacci-Lucas numbers. Finally, we derive quadratic and cubic recurrence relations for the generalized Tribonacci numbers.