The 3n+1 problem: a partition of interest
Number Theory
2019-08-06 v1
Abstract
A mapping conjugate to the Collatz mapping seems to imply that is partitioned in a trivial loop and `strings' that are ordered subsets of that run from an element of to an element of (). In particular, this means that all trajectories except for the trivial loop go through an element of ( for the original mapping). I give reasons for this conjecture. Next, I note that the 3n+1 numbers and the 3n+3 numbers are the only numbers from the generalization for which such a partition seems to exist. Suspiciously, these are also the only members for which the conjecture (reduction to the trivial loop) seems to hold.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1908.01509,
title = {The 3n+1 problem: a partition of interest},
author = {Maarten J. Wensink},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1908.01509},
year = {2019}
}