The Ultimate Signs of Second-Order Holonomic Sequences

Abstract

A real-valued sequence $f = \{ f(n) \}_{n \in \mathbb{N}}$ is said to be second-order holonomic if it satisfies a linear recurrence $f (n + 2) = P (n) f (n + 1) + Q (n) f (n)$ for all sufficiently large $n$, where $P, Q \in \mathbb{R}(x)$ are rational functions. We study the ultimate sign of such a sequence, i.e., the repeated pattern that the signs of $f (n)$ follow for sufficiently large $n$. For each $P$, $Q$ we determine all the ultimate signs that $f$ can have, and show how they partition the space of initial values of $f$. This completes the prior work by Neumann, Ouaknine and Worrell, who have settled some restricted cases. As a corollary, it follows that when $P$, $Q$ have rational coefficients, $f$ either has an ultimate sign of length $1$, $2$, $3$, $4$, $6$, $8$ or $12$, or never falls into a repeated sign pattern. We also give a partial algorithm that finds the ultimate sign of $f$ (or tells that there is none) in almost all cases.