The dynamical system generated by the \(3n+1\) function (Q1382878)

One of the most fascinating mathematical problems is the ``Collatz''-problem (or ``\(3x+1\)''- or ``Hasse''- or ``Syracuse''- or ``Kakutani''-problem), which is to prove that for every \(n \in \mathbb N\) there exists a \(k\) with \(C^{(k)}(n)=1\) where the Collatz function \(C(n)\) takes odd numbers \(n\) to \(3n+1\) and even numbers \(n\) to \(n/2\). In the volume under review, the author gives a complete and competent treatise on the still open problem, although it was attacked by a surprisingly broad variety of different mathematical methods. The five chapters are organized as follows: Chapter I: Introduction, including probability analysis, continued fractions, formal languages; Chapter II: Discrete dynamical systems on the natural numbers and the Collatz graph, density estimates; Chapter III: The \(3\)-adic averages of counting functions; Chapter IV: An asymptotically homogeneous Markov chain; Chapter V: A reduction theorem. The origin dates back to the 1930's, but in the last twenty years there have been a growing number of papers published on this topic; the bibliography contains about 120 items. As the original problem seems to be intractable, there are a lot of interesting generalizations or weaker statements implied by the conjecture. The note is very well written. It is an excellent work for all mathematicians who deal with recursive number-theoretic functions.