OFFSET
1,2
COMMENTS
The sequence is fractal-like as it embeds an infinite number of copies of itself.
The sequence was built according to these rules (see, in the Example section, the parenthesization technique):
1) no overlapping pairs of parentheses;
2) always start the content inside a pair of parentheses with the smallest integer N not yet present inside another pair of parentheses;
3) always end the content inside a pair of parentheses with the smallest integer E not yet present inside another pair of parentheses such that the sum N + E is not a square number;
4) after a(1) = 1 and a(2) = 2, always try to extend the sequence with a duplicate of the oldest term > 5 of the sequence not yet duplicated; if this leads to a contradiction, open a new pair of parentheses.
LINKS
Lars Blomberg, Table of n, a(n) for n = 1..1000
EXAMPLE
Parentheses are added around each pair of terms that don't sum up to a square:
(1,2), (7,3), 1, (8,4), (5,6), (10,9), (16,11), (14,12), (13,15), (21,17), (19,18), (31,20), (29,22), (27,23), 2, 7, (42,24),
Erasing all the parenthesized contents yields
(...), (...), 1, (...), (...), (....), (.....), (.....), (.....), (.....), (.....), (.....), (.....), (.....), 2, 7, (.....),
We see that the remaining terms slowly rebuild the starting sequence.
CROSSREFS
Cf. A000290 (Square numbers).
For other "erasing criteria", cf. A303845 (prime by concatenation), A274329 (pair summing up to a prime), A303936 (pair not summing up to a prime), A303948 (pair sharing a digit), A302389 (pair having no digit in common), A303950 (pair summing up to a Fibonacci), A303951 (pair not summing up to a Fibonacci), A303953 (pair summing up to a square).
KEYWORD
nonn,base
AUTHOR
Lars Blomberg and Eric Angelini, May 03 2018
STATUS
approved