Infinitude of a Greedy Sequence of Perfect Powers with Distinct Neighboring Digits
We study the increasing greedy construction represented by OEIS A175031. Starting from perfect powers whose neighboring decimal digits are distinct, after a term is chosen the next term is the least larger admissible perfect power whose first digit differs from the last digit of the current term. We prove that this greedy process never terminates. The proof uses two unbounded square families. Writing\[R_{9t}=\frac{10^{9t}-1}{9},\qquad t\ge 1,\]the family \(R_{9t}^2\) was previously exhibited by Rodrigo. We give a self-contained common block derivation showing that both \(R_{9t}^2\) and \((2R_{9t})^2\) have distinct neighboring decimal digits. Their first digits are respectively \(1\) and \(4\). Thus, whatever the last digit of a current greedy term may be, one of the two families supplies a larger admissible witness. Consequently the next greedy term always exists, and A175031 is infinite. Version 2: Added attribution and a reference to Rodrigo's 2017 construction of the decimal repunit-square family \(R_{9t}^2\) used as one of the two witness families, and revised the corresponding historical positioning in the abstract, introduction, witness-family section, and conclusion. The greedy infinitude theorem, the block identity, and their proofs are unchanged.
Authors
- Lien-Hung Su (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-4176-1440)
Institutions
- National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (TW)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
- Published
- 2026-10-05
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23151160
- Primary Topic
- Analytic Number Theory Research
- Type
- preprint