Problem

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Tags: Linear Recurrences, pen



Let $m$ be a positive integer. Define the sequence $\{a_{n}\}_{n \ge 0}$ by \[a_{0}=0, \; a_{1}=m, \; a_{n+1}=m^{2}a_{n}-a_{n-1}.\] Prove that an ordered pair $(a, b)$ of non-negative integers, with $a \le b$, gives a solution to the equation \[\frac{a^{2}+b^{2}}{ab+1}= m^{2}\] if and only if $(a, b)$ is of the form $(a_{n}, a_{n+1})$ for some $n \ge 0$.