Problem

Source: 2015 Saudi Arabia GMO TST II p1

Tags: floor function, Sequence, recurrence relation, algebra



Let be given the sequence $(x_n)$ defined by $x_1 = 1$ and $x_{n+1} = 3x_n + \lfloor x_n \sqrt5 \rfloor$ for all $n = 1,2,3,...,$ where $\lfloor x \rfloor$ denotes the greatest integer that does not exceed $x$. Prove that for any positive integer $n$ we have $$x_nx_{n+2} - x^2_{n+1} = 4^{n-1}$$ Trần Nam Dũng