cp's OEIS Frontend

It is conjectured that a(n) = o(n).

It is conjectured that the density of 1's and that of 2's in the Kolakoski sequence A000002 are equal to 1/2. The deficit of 2's in the Kolakoski sequence at rank n being defined as n/2 - number of 2's in the Kolakoski word of length n, a(n) is equal to twice the deficit of 2's (or twice the excess of 1's). Equivalently, the number of 2's up to rank n in the Kolakoski sequence is (n - a(n))/2. - Jean-Christophe Hervé, Oct 05 2014

The conjecture about the densities of 1's and 2's is equivalent to a(n) = o(n). The graph shows that a(n) seems to oscillate around 0 with a pseudo-periodic and fractal pattern. - Jean-Christophe Hervé, Oct 05 2014

It is conjectured that a(n) = O(log(n)) (see PlanetMath link). Note that for a random sequence of 1's and -1's, we would have O(sqrt(n)). - Daniel Forgues, Jul 10 2015

The linked PlanetMath text mentions 0.5*n + O(log(n)) only in respect of an empirical observation, apparently to support the density conjecture (the conjecture described above in the first comment dated Oct 05 2014). - Peter Munn, Aug 03 2022

The conjecture that a(n) = O(log(n)) seems incorrect as |a(n)| seems to grow as fast as sqrt(n), see A289323 and note that a(2^n) = -A289323(n), so for example a(2^64) = -A289323(64) = -836086974 which is much larger in absolute value than log(2^64), but about 0.19*2^32. - Richard P. Brent, Jul 07 2017

For n = 124 to 147, we have the same 24 values as for n = 42 to 65: {0, 1, 0, -1, 0, -1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 2, 1, 0, 1, 0, -1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, -1, 0, -1}, and for n = 173 to 200, we have the same 28 values as for n = 11 to 38: {-1, -2, -1, 0, -1, 0, 1, 0, -1, 0, -1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, -1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 0, 1, 0}. - Daniel Forgues, Jul 11 2015

This is equivalent to A195206, since a(n) = (#twos)-(#ones) = 10^n-2*(#ones) in the first 10^n entries of A000002.

For example, a(2) = 51 - 49 = (100 - 49) - 49 = 100 - 2*49 = 2 because there are 49 ones and 51 twos in the first 100 = 10^2 entries of A000002.

The entries in this sequence appear to be of order 10^(n/2), whereas the entries in A195206 are larger (of order 10^n).

This sequence is analogous to A289323; the difference is that the indices are powers of ten instead of powers of two.