The 3x+1 Problem and Integer Representations

MaRDI QIDQ6260784zbMATH OpenFDO

Authors J. R. Goodwin

Publication date 12 April 2015

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Special sequences and polynomials (11B83)

Abstract: The $3x+1$ Problem asks if whether for every natural number $n$, there exists a finite number of iterations of the piecewise function ${\displaystyle }$f(2n)=n, quad f(2n-1)=6n-2, ${\displaystyle }$ with an iterate equal to the number $1$, or in other words, every sequence contains the trivial cycle $leftlangle4,2,1ightangle$. We use a set-theoretic approach to get representations of all inverse iterates of the number $1$. The representations, which are exponential Diophantine equations, help us study both the extit{mixing} property of $f$ and the asymptotic behavior of sequences containing the trivial cycle. Another one of our original results is the new insight that the extit{ones-ratio} approaches zero for such sequences, where the number of odd terms is extit{arbitrarily large}.

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