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Find a recurrence relation for the number of strings of length $n$ over the alphabet $\{1, 2,3,4,5,6,7\}$ such that there are no consecutive $1$'s or $2$'s.

I have no idea where to start. I've been stuck for some time. Any help is appreciated, Thanks.

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  • $\begingroup$ How can there be consecutive $0$s if there are no $0$s. $\endgroup$ – fleablood Mar 13 at 23:21
  • $\begingroup$ oops, changed $0$'s to $2$'s $\endgroup$ – Adi Mar 13 at 23:23
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Make coupled recurrences, one for the number of good strings of length $n$ that do not end in $1$ or $2$ and one for the number of good strings that do end in $1$ or $2$. Given the number of each, how many strings of length $n+1$ of each type are there?

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Building on Ross's hint.

Let $a_n$ be the number of good strings of length $n$

Let $b_n$ be the number of good strings of length $n$ which do not end in a $1$ or $2$

Let $c_n$ be the number of good strings of length $n$ which end in $1$

Let $d_n$ be the number of good strings of length $n$ which end in $2$

This gives the recurrence $a_n=b_n+c_n+d_n$

Obviously, $b_n = 5a_{n-1}$

Also we have $c_n=b_{n-1}+d_{n-1}$ because the right hand side of the equation is the number of good strings of length $n-1$ which do not end in a $1$.

Finally, $d_n=b_{n-1}+c_{n-1}$ because the right hand side of the equation is the number of good strings of length $n-1$ which do not end in a $2$

Substituting for $b_n$, $c_n$, $d_n$ in the first equation the equations we get, $a_n = 5a_{n-1}+b_{n-1}+d_{n-1}+b_{n-1}+c_{n-1}$ = $5a_{n-1}+b_{n-1}+a_{n-1}$ = $6a_{n-1}+5a_{n-2}$

Therefore, $a_n=6a_{n-1}+5a_{n-2}$

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Strings of length $n\ge 2$ fall in two classes; those that end with a double letter, and those that do not. There are $6a_{n-1}$ strings which do not end with a double letter (six choices for the end letter, anything but the previous), and $5a_{n-2}$ which do (five choices for the double, anything but $11$ or $22$), so $$ a_{n}=6a_{n-1}+5a_{n-2},\qquad n\ge2. $$

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    $\begingroup$ Very neat but I think... while deleting $22$ does leave a legal string of length $n-1$, it doesn't leave all possible legal strings of length $n-1$, namely, it doesn't leave legal strings of length $n-1$ which end in $2$. A pity if I'm right though, as this is much neater than Ross's standard solution. $\endgroup$ – antkam Mar 14 at 5:01
  • $\begingroup$ antkam, while Ross's solution is very neat, i think you're right. $\endgroup$ – Adi Mar 14 at 11:00
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    $\begingroup$ @antkam Yep, I was way off! Oh well, with the hind sight of Adi's answer, I can now give a nice combinatorial proof of the recursion. $\endgroup$ – Mike Earnest Mar 14 at 15:06
  • $\begingroup$ Great! It often (always?) happens that a set of coupled recurrences can be reduced to only 1 recurrence of the main series. I've often wondered if the single recurrence can then be "retroactively" explained -- it's lovely that you found the way in this case. If you have "general techniques" to share, I'd love to hear them. :) $\endgroup$ – antkam Mar 14 at 19:07
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    $\begingroup$ @antkam No general techniques yet, though I certainly want to know them and thing they must exist. BTW, the answer to your "always?" question is yes. Any system of recurrences can be described by a vector-matrix recurrence ${\bf v}_{n+1}=A{\bf v}_n$. The characteristic polynomial of $A$ gives a univariate recurrence solved by each coordinate of ${\bf v}_n$, allowing you to decouple. $\endgroup$ – Mike Earnest Mar 14 at 19:23

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