In mathematics, the random Fibonacci sequence is a stochastic analogue of the Fibonacci sequence defined by the recurrence relation fn = fn−1 ± fn−2, where the signs + or − are chosen at random with equal probability 1/2, independently for different n. By a theorem of Harry Kesten and Hillel Fürstenberg, random recurrent sequences of this kind grow at a certain exponential rate, but it is difficult to compute the rate explicitly. In 1999, Divakar Viswanath showed that the growth rate of the random Fibonacci sequence is equal to 1.1319882487943…, a mathematical constant that was later named Viswanath's constant.
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