English

Integer patterns in Collatz sequences

General Mathematics 2019-07-18 v2

Abstract

The Collatz conjecture asserts that repeatedly iterating f(x)=(3x+1)/2a(x)f(x) = (3x + 1)/2^{a(x)}, where a(x)a(x) is the highest exponent for which 2a(x)2^{a(x)} exactly divides 3x+13x+1, always lead to 11 for any odd positive integer xx. Here, we present an arborescence graph constructed from iterations of g(x)=(2e(x)x1)/3g(x) = (2^{e(x)}x - 1)/3, which is the inverse of f(x)f(x) and where x≢[0]3x \not \equiv [0]_3 and e(x)e(x) is any positive integer satisfying 2e(x)x1[0]32^{e(x)}x - 1 \equiv [0]_3, with [0]3[0]_3 denoting 0(mod3)0\pmod{3}. The integer patterns inferred from the resulting arborescence provide new insights into proving the validity of the conjecture.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1907.07088,
  title  = {Integer patterns in Collatz sequences},
  author = {Zenon B. Batang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1907.07088},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

13 pages, 2 figures; corrected typos

R2 v1 2026-06-23T10:22:21.086Z