English

The Collatz Problem generalized to 3x+k

Dynamical Systems 2021-01-21 v1

Abstract

The Collatz problem with 3x+k3x+k is revisited. Positive and negative limit cycles are given up to k=9997 starting with x0=2107...+2107x_0=-2\cdot10^7...+2\cdot10^7. A simple relation between the probability distribution for the Syracuse iterates for various k (not divisible by 2 and 3) is obtained. From this it follows that the oscillation considered by Tao 2019 ( arXiv:1909.03562v2 ) does not depend on k. Thus this piece of the proof of his theorem 1.3 "Almost all Collatz orbits attain almost bounded values" holds for all k not divisible by 2 and 3.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2101.08060,
  title  = {The Collatz Problem generalized to 3x+k},
  author = {Franz Wegner},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2101.08060},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

Main paper 13 pages; Supplement (278 pages) contains a list of limit cycles up to k=9997

R2 v1 2026-06-23T22:20:49.000Z