Euler in Babylon

Modified Fibonacci golden nuggets

February 03, 2007

Consider the infinite polynomial series AG(x) = xG1 + x2G2 + x3G3 + ..., where Gk is the kth term of the second order recurrence relation Gk = Gk−1 + Gk−2, G1 = 1 and G2 = 4; that is, 1, 4, 5, 9, 14, 23, ... .

For this problem we shall be concerned with values of x for which AG(x) is a positive integer.

The corresponding values of x for the first five natural numbers are shown below.

xAG(x)
(√5−1)/41
2/52
(√22−2)/63
(√137−5)/144
1/25

We shall call AG(x) a golden nugget if x is rational, because they become increasingly rarer; for example, the 20th golden nugget is 211345365.

Find the sum of the first thirty golden nuggets.


gamwe6

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