On positivity and minimality for second-order holonomic sequences

An infinite sequence <u_n>_n of real numbers is holonomic (also known as P-recursive or P-finite) if it satisfies a linear recurrence relation with polynomial coefficients. Such a sequence is said to be positive if each u_n ≥ 0, and minimal if, given any other linearly independent sequence <v_n>_n satisfying the same recurrence relation, the ratio u_n/v_n → 0 as n → ∞.

In this paper we give a Turing reduction of the problem of deciding positivity of second-order holonomic sequences to that of deciding minimality of such sequences. More specifically, we give a procedure for determining positivity of second-order holonomic sequences that terminates in all but an exceptional number of cases, and we show that in these exceptional cases positivity can be determined using an oracle for deciding minimality.

Proceedings of MFCS 21, LIPIcs 202, 2021. 15 pages.

PDF © 2021 George Kenison, Oleksiy Klurman, Engel Lefaucheux, Florian Luca, Pieter Moree, Joël Ouaknine, Markus A. Whiteland, and James Worrell.