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Former title: Triangular form sequence made from a version of A082605 Euler extension.

Number of periodic palindromes of length n using a maximum of k different symbols.

From Petros Hadjicostas, Sep 02 2018: (Start)

According to Christian Bower's theory of transforms, we have boxes of different sizes and different colors. The size of a box is determined by the number of balls it can hold. In this case, we assume all balls are the same and are unlabeled. Assume also that the number of possible colors a box with m balls can have is given by c(m). We place the boxes on a circle at equal distances from each other. Two configurations of boxes on the circle are considered equivalent if one can be obtained from the other by rotation. We are interested about circular configurations of boxes that are circular palindromes (i.e., necklaces with boxes that are the same when turned over). Let b(n) be the number of circularly palindromic configurations of boxes on a circle when the total number of balls in the boxes is n (and each box contains at least one ball).

Bower calls the sequence (b(n): n >= 1), the CPAL ("circular palindrome") transform of the input sequence (c(m): m >= 1). If the g.f. of the input sequence (c(m): m >= 1) is C(x) = Sum_{m>=1} c(m)*x^m, then the g.f. of the output sequence (b(n): n >= 1) is B(x) = Sum_{n >= 1} b(n)*x^n = (1 + C(x))^2/(2*(1 - C(x^2))) - 1/2.

In the current sequence, each box holds only one ball but can have one of k colors. Hence, c(1) = k but c(m) = 0 for m >= 2. Thus, C(x) = k*x. Then, for fixed k, the output sequence is (b(n): n >= 1) = (T(n, k): n >= 1), where T(n, k) = number of necklaces with n beads and k colors that are the same when turned over. If we let B_k(x) = Sum_{n>=1} T(n, k)*x^n, then B_k(x) = (1 + k*x)^2/(2*(1 - k*x^2)) - 1/2. From this, we can easily prove the formulae below.

Note that T(n, k=2) - 1 is the total number of Sommerville symmetric cyclic compositions of n. See pp. 301-304 in his paper in the links below. To see why this is the case, we use MacMahon's method of representing a cyclic composition of n with a necklace of 2 colors (see p. 273 in Sommerville's paper where the two "colors" are an x and a dot . rather than B and W). Given a Sommerville symmetrical composition b_1 + ... + b_r of n (with b_i >= 1 for all i and 1 <= r <= n), create the following circularly palindromic necklace with n beads of 2 colors: Start with a B bead somewhere on the circle and place b_1 - 1 W beads to the right of it; place a B bead to the right of the W beads (if any) followed by b_2 - 1 W beads; and so on. At the end, place a B bead followed with b_r - 1 W beads. (If b_i = 1 for some i, then a B bead follows a B bead since there are 0 W beads between them.) We thus get a circularly palindromic necklace with n beads of two colors. (The only necklace we cannot get with this method is the one than has all n beads colored W.)

It is interesting that the representation of a necklace of length n, say s_1, s_2, ..., s_n, as a periodic sequence (..., s_{-2}, s_{-1}, s_0, s_1, s_2, ...) with the property s_i = s_{i+n} for all i, as was done by Marks R. Nester in Chapter 2 of his 1999 PhD thesis, was considered by Sommerville in his 1909 paper (in the very first paragraph of his paper). (End)

Using this definition of a(k) we (formally) work backwards towards a(2)=5 to arrive at the formula for a(k) below.

For k >= 3, a(k) has the simple form a(k) = 2^(k-2)*(4 + (1 + (-1)^(k+1))/2) + 1; and it follows by induction that a(k) is congruent to 17 (mod 24) for all k >= 4. Direct calculations show that for k >= 3, the discriminants of the polynomials x^2 + x + a(k), D(k) = 1 - 4*a(k), satisfy the functional equation -D(k) = a(k+2) + 2.

Number of chiral bracelets of n beads using up to four different colors.

Number of aperiodic necklaces with four colors that are the same when turned over and hence have reflectional symmetry but no rotational symmetry. - Herbert Kociemba, Nov 29 2016