\(3x + 1\) search programs (Q5896654)

A study of certain functions of the trajectories of (1) \(T(n)=(3n+1)/2\) if \(n\) is odd, and \(T(n)=n/2\), if \(n\) is even, and of (2) \(H(n)=3n+1\), if \(n\) is odd and \(H(n)=n/2\), if \(n\) is even. By exploring arithmetic properties of these functions as well as algorithmic efficiencies in their calculation, the authors conduct searches of \(\max_{m<n} \max_ j T^{(j)}(m)\), as \(n\) increases and of related functions via the Argus distributed programming language and system. The authors assess the effect of their various computational optimizations by comparison to parallel searches using a C-based distributed system.