English

A Fractional $3n+1$ Conjecture

Dynamical Systems 2020-06-23 v1 Formal Languages and Automata Theory

Abstract

In this paper we introduce and discuss the sequence of \emph{real numbers} defined as u0Ru_0 \in \mathbb R and un+1=Δ(un)u_{n+1} = \Delta(u_n) where \begin{equation*} \Delta(x) = \begin{cases} \frac{x}{2} &\text{if } \operatorname{frac}(x)<\frac{1}{2} \\[4px] \frac{3x+1}{2} & \text{if } \operatorname{frac}(x)\geq\frac{1}{2} \end{cases} \end{equation*} This sequence is reminiscent of the famous Collatz sequence, and seems to exhibit an interesting behaviour. Indeed, we conjecture that iterating Δ\Delta will eventually either converge to zero, or loop over sequences of real numbers with integer parts 1,2,4,7,11,18,9,4,7,3,5,9,4,7,11,18,9,4,7,3,6,3,1,2,4,7,3,6,31,2,4,7,11,18,9,4,7,3,5,9,4,7,11,18,9,4,7,3,6,3,1,2,4,7,3,6,3. We prove this conjecture for u0[0,100]u_0 \in [0, 100]. Extending the proof to larger fixed values seems to be a matter of computing power. The authors pledge to offer a reward to the first person who proves or refutes the conjecture completely -- with a proof published in a serious refereed mathematical conference or journal.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2006.11634,
  title  = {A Fractional $3n+1$ Conjecture},
  author = {Éric Brier and Rémi Géraud-Stewart and David Naccache},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2006.11634},
  year   = {2020}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-23T16:29:19.644Z