1. Introduction
Max-type difference equations and max-type difference systems have been wisely applied in biology, computer science and automatic control systems and so on. There has been great interest in studying these equations in recent years.
For example, Briden et al. [1] investigated the periodicity character of the solution of the max-type difference equation

Xiao Qian et al. [2] showed that the solution of the max-type difference equation

is periodic with period two.
W. Q. Ji et al. [3] showed that the solution of the max-type difference system

is periodic with period two.
In addition, E. M. Elasyed, Stevo Stević and others investigated some periodic max-type difference equations and periodic max-type difference systems in [4] - [7] .
In this paper we show that every solution of the following max-type difference system
(1)
where the initial conditions
are arbitrary non-zero real numbers and
, is periodic with period four.
Remark 1. Note that if
, then System (1) becomes
,
, from which it follows that
,
and every solution is periodic with period four.
2. Some Lemmas
Lemma 1 Assume that
is a solution of System (1) and there exists a
such that
(2)
Then every solution is periodic with period four.
Proof Frist, we will prove that
(3)
where
, from which the lemma follows.
Now, we use the method of induction. For
, Equation (3) becomes the following equations
(4)
By System (1) and Equation (2), we obtain that
![]()
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From which, Equation (4) holds.
Assume Equation (3) holds for
, and by using System (1) and Equation (2), we obtain that
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So we complete the proof.
Lemma 2 Assume that
. Then every solution of System (1) is positive if initial conditions satisfy one of the following conditions
or
or
or
.
Proof Without loss of generality, we assume that
and from System (1) we have
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By using the method of induction, we have
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Similarly, when
or
or
, there exists an
such that
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The proof is completed.
Lemma 3 Assume that
. Then every solution of System (1) with positive initial conditions is periodic with period four.
Proof By System (1), we obtain that
![]()
Let
,
,
and there are four cases which need to be discussed.
Case 1.
. We have
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Hence,
. And by Lemma 1, we have that the solution is periodic with period four. Moreover, we have
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where
, and the solution has the following form
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Case 2.
. We have
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Hence,
. And by Lemma 1, we have that the solution is periodic with period four. Moreover, we have
![]()
where
, and the solution has the following form
![]()
Case 3.
. We have
![]()
Hence,
. And by Lemma 1, we have that the solution is periodic with period four. Moreover, we have
![]()
where
, and the solution has the following form
![]()
Case 4.
. We have
![]()
Hence,
. And by Lemma 1, we have that the solution is periodic with period four. Moreover, we have
![]()
where
, and the solution has the following form
![]()
So we complete the proof.
Lemma 4 Assume that
. Then every solution of System (1) with negative initial conditions is periodic with period four.
Proof Since
and
, by induction we have
. If we use the change
and System (1) can be rewritten as follows
(5)
where
.
Now, we will prove that every solution of System (5) with positive initial conditions is periodic with period four.
Let
,
,
. Similar to the proof of Lemma (3), there are four cases which need to be discussed.
Case 1.
. We obtain that
![]()
Case 2.
. We obtain that
![]()
Case 3.
. We obtain that
![]()
Case 4.
. We obtain that
![]()
So we complete the proof.
Lemma 5 Assume that
. Then every solution of System (1) is periodic with period four if initial conditions satisfy one of the following conditions
![]()
Proof
If
, by using System (1), we know that there is only one case which needs to be discussed. That is
![]()
Then we have
![]()
Hence,
. And by Lemma 1, we have that the solution is periodic with period four.
The proof of case
is similar to the proof of case
, so we omit it. Then, the proof is completed.
Lemma 6 Assume that
. Then every solution of System (1) is periodic with period four if initial conditions satisfy one of the following conditions
![]()
Proof
If
, by using System (1), we know that
so there are two cases which need to be discussed. That is
![]()
Case 1.
. We have
![]()
Hence,
. And by Lemma 1, we have that the solution is periodic with period four.
Case 2.
. We have
![]()
Hence,
. And by Lemma 1, we have that the solution is periodic with period four.
The proof of case
is similar to the proof of case
, so we omit it. Then, the proof is completed.
Lemma 7 Assume that
. Then every solution of System (1) is periodic with period four if initial conditions satisfy one of the following conditions
![]()
Proof
If
, by using System (1), we know that there are four cases which need to be discussed. That is
![]()
Case 1.
. We have
![]()
Hence,
. And by Lemma 1, we have that the solution is periodic with period four.
The proof of case
is similar to the proof of case
in Lemma 3, so we omit it and case
is completed.
Similarly, the proof of case
is similar to the proof of case
, so we omit it.
3. Main Results
By using Lemma 2 and Lemma 3, we obtain the following result.
Theorem 1 Assume that
. Then every solution of System (1) is periodic with period four if initial conditions satisfies one of the following conditions
or
or
or
.
By using Theorem 1 and Lemma 4, we obtain the following result.
Theorem 2 Assume that
. Then every well-defined solution of System (1) is periodic with period four.
By using Lemma 5, Lemma 6 and Lemma 7, we obtain the following result.
Theorem 3 Assume that
. Then every well-defined solution of System (1) is periodic with period four.
By using Theorem 2 and Theorem 3, we obtain the following result.
Theorem 4 Assume that
. Then every well-defined solution of System (1) is periodic with period four.
Acknowledgements
We thank the Editor and the referee for their comments. Research supported by Distinguished Expert Foundation and Youth Science Foundation of Naval Aeronautical and Astronautical University.