Although we will not consider examples more complicated than these, this characteristic root technique can be applied to much more complicated recurrence relations. For example, \(a_n = 2a_{n-1} + a_{n-2} - 3a_{n-3}\) has characteristic polynomial \(x^3 - 2 x^2 - x + 3\text{.}\) Assuming you see how to factor such a degree 3 (or more) polynomial you can easily find the characteristic roots and as such solve the recurrence relation (the solution would look like \(a_n = ar_1^n + br_2^n + cr_3^n\) if there were 3 distinct roots). It is also possible that the characteristics roots are complex numbers.
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