English

New results on the stopping time behaviour of the Collatz 3x + 1 function

General Mathematics 2021-10-07 v4

Abstract

Let σn=1+nlog23\sigma_n=\lfloor1+n\cdot\log_23\rfloor. For the Collatz 3x + 1 function exists for each nNn\in\mathbb{N} a set of different residue classes (mod 2σn)(\text{mod}\ 2^{\sigma_n}) of starting numbers ss with finite stopping time σ(s)=σn\sigma(s)=\sigma_n. Let znz_n be the number of these residue classes for each n0n\geq0 as listed in the OEIS as A100982. It is conjectured that for each n4n\geq4 the value of znz_n is given by the formula \begin{align*} z_n=\frac{(m+n-2)!}{m!\cdot(n-2)!}-\sum_{i=2}^{n-1}\binom{\big\lfloor\frac{3(n-i)+\delta}{2}\big\rfloor}{n-i}\cdot z_i, \end{align*} where m=(n1)log23(n1)m=\big\lfloor(n-1)\cdot\log_23\big\rfloor-(n-1) and δZ\delta\in\mathbb{Z} assumes different values within the sum at intervals of 5 or 6 terms. This allows us to create an iterative algorithm which generates znz_n for each n>6n>6.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1504.00212,
  title  = {New results on the stopping time behaviour of the Collatz 3x + 1 function},
  author = {Mike Winkler},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1504.00212},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

18 pages, 1 figure, algorithms/programs in PARI/GP