English

The Collatz function as an automorphic Cayley colour graph:decidability of $an+b$ conjectures, proof of the $3n + 1$ conjecture

General Mathematics 2024-04-29 v8

Abstract

The Collatz conjecture states that repeated steps of n3n+1n\mathrm{\to }\mathrm{3}n\mathrm{+1} at odd numbers and nn/2n\mathrm{\to }n\mathrm{/2} at even numbers amount to walks over root paths to the branching number c=4c=4 in the `trivial' cyclic root 42144\to 2\to 1\to 4\to \dots of one connected Collatz graph. The Collatz graph with reverse arrows n2nn \to 2n and n(n1)/3n \to (n-1)/3 can be transformed to a 3-regular automorphic Cayley color graph T0T_{\ge 0} with as nodes the branching numbers with a remainder of 44 or 1616 when divided by 1818, building the congruence classes [4,16]18[4,16]_{18}. Labeling the 2k2^k breadth-first ordered root paths with 2k2^k binary numbers on the binary number line, for k=1,2,3,k=1,2,3,\dots, and pairing them with the 2k2^k output numbers of these root paths, gives 2k2^k paired numbers. The 3-regular Cayley graph of these paired branching numbers can be transformed to a 4-regular Middle Pages graph. This 4-regular graph offers to all paired branching numbers from the congruence classes [4,16]18[4,16]_{18} a unique Eulerian tour to and from the trivial root number pair {0,c=4}. This proves Collatz's 3n+13n+1 conjecture. Whether a specific an+ban+b conjecture offers a Eulerian tour to all its paired branching numbers can be decided by whether it offers such a tour to paired branching numbers lower than 2a32a^3.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2008.13643,
  title  = {The Collatz function as an automorphic Cayley colour graph:decidability of $an+b$ conjectures, proof of the $3n + 1$ conjecture},
  author = {Jan Kleinnijenhuis and Alissa M. Kleinnijenhuis and Mustafa G. Aydogan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2008.13643},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

Eulerian tours in 4-regular middle pages graph of all branching numbers now supports periodic density proof of the Collatz Conjecture on 3-regular graph (v1 31 Aug 2000). They also prove the decidability of an+b conjectures