Related papers: Is the Syracuse falling time bounded by 12?

We study outer billiards with contraction outside regular polygons. For regular $n$-gons with $n = 3, 4, 5, 6, 8$, and $12$, we show that as the contraction rate approaches $1$, dynamics of the system converges, in a certain sense, to that…

Define the map $\mathsf{T}$ on the positive integers by $\mathsf{T}(m)=\frac{m}{2}$ if $m$ is even and by $\mathsf{T}(m)=\frac{3m+1}{2}$ if $m$ is odd. Results of Terras and Everett imply that, given any $\epsilon>0$, almost all…

It is shown that every Collatz sequence $C(s)$ consists only of same structured finite subsequences $C^h(s)$ for $s\equiv9\ (mod\ 12)$ or $C^t(s)$ for $s\equiv3,7\ (mod\ 12)$. For starting numbers of specific residue classes ($mod\…

The clustering of integers with equal total stopping times has long been observed in the 3x + 1 Problem, and a number of elementary results about it have been used repeatedly in the literature. In this paper we introduce a simple…

This paper investigates some particular limits involving nested floor functions. We'll prove some cases and then we'll show a more general result. Then we'll count the discontinuity points of those functions, and we'll prove a method to…

This paper gives a simple proof of the Wirsching-Goodwin representation of integers connected to 1 in the $3x+1$ problem (see \cite{Wirsching} and \cite{Goodwin}). This representation permits to compute all the ascending Collatz sequences…

We analyze the stopping-time and cycle structure of the normalized Collatz iteration. Using a recursive description of admissible binary sequences, we show that every integer $m \equiv 3 \pmod{4}$ arises uniquely and derive new bounds for…

The scope of the present work is to explain why it is true that all N have a distinct position in The Collatz Tree (The Collatz Graph)

In this article, we reduce the unsolved problem of convergence of Collatz sequences to convergence of Collatz sequences of odd numbers that are divisible by 3. We give an elementary proof of the fact that a Collatz sequence does not…

In this note we study the error term R_{n,L}(x) in the generalized circle problem for a ball of volume x and a random lattice L of large dimension n. Our main result is the following functional central limit theorem: Fix an arbitrary…

We prove a quantitative local limit theorem for the number of descents in a random permutation. Our proof uses a conditioning argument and is based on bounding the characteristic function $\phi(t)$ of the number of descents. We also…

The counting function for the numbers satisfying the Collatz conjecture is studied. A related exponential congruence equation is investigated, yielding a method to construct its solutions from free variables, and enabling us to find at…

The three gap theorem (or Steinhaus conjecture) asserts that there are at most three distinct gap lengths in the fractional parts of the sequence $\alpha,2\alpha,\ldots,N\alpha$, for any integer $N$ and real number $\alpha$. This statement…

Given a finite nonempty sequence of integers S, by grouping adjacent terms it is always possible to write it, possibly in many ways, as S = X Y^k, where X and Y are sequences and Y is nonempty. Choose the version which maximizes the value…

We study difference inequality systems for the 3x+1 problem introduced by the first author in 1989. These systemes can be used to give lower bounds for the number of integers below x that contain 1 in their forward orbit under the 3x+1 map.…

The Collatz conjecture asserts that repeatedly iterating $f(x) = (3x + 1)/2^{a(x)}$, where $a(x)$ is the highest exponent for which $2^{a(x)}$ exactly divides $3x+1$, always lead to $1$ for any odd positive integer $x$. Here, we present an…

The 3x+1 function T is defined on the positive integers by $T(x) = \frac{3x+1}{2}$ for x odd and $T(x) = \frac{x}{2}$ for x even. The function T has a natural extension to the 2-adic integers, and there is a continuous function $\Phi$ which…

Let T(x,r) denote the first hitting time of the disc of radius r centered at x for Brownian motion on the two dimensional torus. We prove that sup_{x} T(x,r)/|log r|^2 --> 2/pi as r --> 0. The same applies to Brownian motion on any smooth,…

Three-speed ballistic annihilation starts with infinitely many particles on the real line. Each is independently assigned either speed-$0$ with probability $p$, or speed-$\pm 1$ symmetrically with the remaining probability. All particles…

By introducing the busy beaver competition of Turing machines, in 1962, Rado defined noncomputable functions on positive integers. The study of these functions and variants leads to many mathematical challenges. This article takes up the…