On the Characteristic Polynomial of the Generalized <i>k</i>-Distance Tribonacci Sequences

Abstract

In 2008, I. Włoch introduced a new generalization of Pell numbers. She used special initial conditions so that this sequence describes the total number of special families of subsets of the set of n integers. In this paper, we prove some results about the roots of the characteristic polynomial of this sequence, but we will consider general initial conditions. Since there are currently several types of generalizations of the Pell sequence, it is very difficult for anyone to realize what type of sequence an author really means. Thus, we will call this sequence the generalized k-distance Tribonacci sequence (Tn(k))n≥0.

Keywords

• Fibonacci numbers
• Tribonacci numbers
• generalized Fibonacci numbers
• characteristic equation
• Descartes’ sign rule
• Eneström–Kakeya theorem