English

Inventory Loops (i.e. Counting Sequences) have Pre-period $2\max S_1+60$

Number Theory 2020-04-02 v1 Combinatorics History and Overview

Abstract

An Inventory Sequence (S0,S1,S2,...)(S_0, S_1, S_2, ...) is the iteration of the map ff defined roughly by taking an integer to its numericized description (e.g. f(1381)=211318f(1381)=211318 since "13811381" has two 11's, one 33, and one 88). Our work analyzes the iteration under the infinite base. Any starting value of positive digits is known to be ultimately periodic [1] (e.g. S0=1381S_0=1381 reaches the 1-cycle f(3122331418)=3122331418f(3122331418)=3122331418). Parametrizations of all possible cycles are also known [2,3]. We answer Bronstein and Fraenkel's open question of 26 years showing the pre-period of any such starting value is no more than 2M+602M+60 where M=maxS1M=\max S_1. And oddly the period of the cycle can be determined after only O(loglogM)O(\log\log M) iterations.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2004.00209,
  title  = {Inventory Loops (i.e. Counting Sequences) have Pre-period $2\max S_1+60$},
  author = {Onno M. Cain and Sela T. Enin},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2004.00209},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

27 pages, 18 figures, code available

R2 v1 2026-06-23T14:34:46.792Z