1. Introduction About The Collatz Conjecture
The Collatz Conjecture is a famous math conjecture, named after mathematician Lothar Collatz, who introduced the idea in 1937. It is also known as the 3x + 1 conjecture, the Ulam conjecture etc. Many mathematicians have tried to prove it true or false and have expanded it to more digits scale. But until today, it has not yet been proved.
The Collatz Conjecture concerns sequences of positive integers in which each term is obtained from the previous one as follows: if the previous integer is even, the next integer is the previous integer divided by 2, till to odd. If the previous integer is odd, the next term is the previous integer multiply 3 and plus 1. The conjecture is that these sequences always reach 1, no matter which positive integer is chosen to start the sequence.
Here is an example for a typical integer x = 27, takes up to 111 steps, increasing or decreasing step by step, climbing as high as 9232 before descending to 1.
27, 82, 41, 124, 62, 31, 94, 47, 142, 71, 214, 107, 322, 161, 484, 242, 121, 364, 182, 91, 274, 137, 412, 206, 103, 310, 155, 466, 233, 700, 350, 175, 526, 263, 790, 395, 1186, 593, 1780, 890, 445, 1336, 668, 334, 167, 502, 251, 754, 377, 1132, 566, 283, 850, 425, 1276, 638, 319, 958, 479, 1438, 719, 2158, 1079, 3238, 1619, 4858, 2429, 7288, 3644, 1822, 911, 2734, 1367, 4102, 2051, 6154, 3077, 9232, 4616, 2308, 1154, 577, 1732, 866, 433, 1300, 650, 325, 976, 488, 244, 122, 61, 184, 92, 46, 23, 70, 35, 106, 53, 160, 80, 40, 20, 10, 5, 16, 8, 4, 2, 1.
If the conjecture is false, there should exists some starting number which gives rise to a sequence that does not contain 1. Such a sequence would either enter a repeating cycle that excludes 1, or increase without bound. No such sequence has been found by human and computer after verified a lot of numbers can reach to 1. It is very difficult to prove these two cases exist or not.
This paper will try to prove the conjecture true from a special view. Because any even can become odd through
operation, this paper will research only odd characters in the conjecture sequence. The equivalence conjecture become: with random starting odd x, do
operation repeatedly, it always converges to 1. The above sequence can be written as following, in which numbers on arrows are k in
in each step:
2. Build Equation For The Conjecture
If odd x do n times calculation build odd y, we can get:
In which p1…pn is k in operation in each step.
For example: ,, then
Suppose odd x can converge to 1 through calculation, then y=1, get:
We know , and can do any times this kind of operation. That is to say, 1 do random n steps operation can converge to 1, have:
Below we use this model to prove and search for solution of Formula (1) for any odd x converging to 1.
3. Solution For Any Odd Converging To 1 Equation
First with odd x do reform:
, am…a0=0, 1 or 2. Then:
If am>1 or am=1 but
, make
or :
Build identical equation:
If x can converge to 1, Formula (1) and Formula (2) should be equivalence. Below we try to reform Formula (2) to form of Formula (1), if successful, it proves that equation for Formula (1) has solution.
First let:
, because x is odd, this is odd minus even, tn should be odd.
Because the max value of x-3m is , min value is , then tn has a range:
from to .
Change tn to binary form and let:
, this is just with 3n part multiply (2+1) become 3n-1 part, and plus corresponding part in Formula (2), minus corresponding part in Formula (1). From now on, tn-1 become even.Continue:
, and let 2p1 equal to max value of even part(or the lowest bit of odd part).
Watch Formula (1) and Formula (2), in general, if do not consider 2p1+… part (because we consider 2p1+… as max value of even part of ti-2) in Formula (1), corresponding parts in Formula (2) are bigger than corresponding part in Formula (1). Hence after a few times of , value of ti-2 is mainly determined by corresponding part in Formula (2). And, after , odd part should add 1 or 2 bits, if add 1 bit, should operate in MSB bit, if add 2 bits, should operate in MSB-1 bit. Both cases odd part add 2 bits after operation, if MSB bit of ti-2 is 2k, k should be odd.
For example:
,
Continue:
, let 2p1+p2 equal to max value of even part.Because LSB bit no. of odd part of ti increases continuously, this can be finished easily.
Watch ti(i<n and decreases step by step), during iteration, the count of succession 1 in the highest part should be unchanged or increased. Why? This is because of characters of odd multiply 3 and operation. If ti-1 is with form 10…, obviously, count of succession 1 in highest part of ti-2 is unchanged or increased. If ti-1 is with form 111…, after do , should become 101…, do ,become 111…, count of succession 1 in highest part is also unchanged or increased. Other cases can be proved easily. Some cases can increase, for example, if ti-1 is with form 110110…, ti-2 becomes 1110…
Do this iteration continuously, count of succession 1 in the highest part of odd part of ti is unchanged or increased, LSB bit no. is also increased. Hence, finally, ti can become form of 11…, just form (k+j=odd). Stop here, do not do again, odd x already converge to 1. Do operation, it should operate in MSB+1 bit, because MSB bit no. of is forever equal to MSB+1 bit no. of the previous item. Hence minus result can be equal to , thus prove the Collatz Conjecture and get solution of Formula (1).
Below give a specific example,x=7.
We know, with 7 do , have:
Suppose:
Build:
*(2+1) and +24:
-3n-1:
*(2+1) and +26: ,
Let p1=1, and delete item 2:
*(2+1) and +28: Let p1+p2=2, and delete item 22:
*(2+1) and +210: Let p1+p2+p3=4, and delete item 24:
*(2+1) and +212: Let p1+p2+p3+p4=7, and delete item 27:
Now become 111…, the highest bit is 213, iteration finished, steps n=5. And
.
This way, we get a solution for Formula (1), in which the value of n and pi is exactly same with the result got from calculating directly.
4. Convergence Regularity Of Collatz Conjecture
If we calculate directly with odd through operation, the odd sequence built (called Sequence (1)) has no obvious convergence regularity, elements in the sequence vary sometimes big, sometimes small. But if we do operation as introduced in above section, convergence regularity of the odd sequence built (called Sequence (2)) is more obvious.
First, if add two corresponding elements in each step in these two odd sequences, should be exactly 2k(k is different with different elements). Such as
… in above example.
In general, first element in Sequence (2) is:
and first element in Sequence (1) is x:
, then
, is just the same form with Formula (2), and 2m should be the MSB+1 bit no. of x or a(along with the increase of a in Sequence (2), 2m should be the MSB+1 bit no. of a,because each corresponding part in Formula (2) is bigger than which in Formula (1)).
Below prove next elements also satisfy above regularity.
Suppose a in Sequence (2) and x in in Sequence (1) satisfy above regularity, and:
,
, then
,
,
This states that the lowest bit of odd part of (3x+1) and (3a+2m+1-1) is equal, and add these two odd parts should be 2i(i<k).
Above regularity states that the original odd sequence has no obvious regularity is because it is only the partial part, not the whole part.
Second, research into odd multiplying 3, any odd can be written in binary form 1…1, both the highest and lowest bit is 1, after
, although total bit number increases, first substep is to shift bit 1 to the middle of the result, second substep may make carry to higher bit due to 1+1 in the middle of the result(1-bits in the middle of odd also satisfy this regularity). Both substeps are beneficial to our final goal, because we need many 1 bits in final result.
operation ensure succession 1 bits in the highest part, -1 operation reduce count of isolated 1 bits in the lowest part. Hence 0-bits in the odd part in t
i should shift right or bit-count reduce in each step, and its weight in total t
i should reduce step by step till to 0, when the odd part converges to 1...1. Build a simple weight model:
where 2
2k is the corresponding adding part in t
i in that step. Because obviously
in each step, simply we can use w
i represent the weight of value of all 0 bits in odd part in t
i. We can also think
as the sum of t
i and its corresponding part in original sequence, the conclusion we final got is same. Specially, with any odd a, which highest bit is 2
m, define w
i for this odd:
Although the denominator may be bigger than which in Definition (1), the regularity is same.
Note: if odd is with form 1...1, without 0 bits, try to find its corresponding original odd strictly using method introduced above, if not found, abondon it, if found, ignore some previous steps till w(i) or w[a] is not equal to 0. Only weight function value of 11 is always equal to 0 till to convergence, it is not worth worrying about. These cases do not influence our research.
Observe wi, it should reduce step by step, and model value can and must converge to 0, because there is no possibility to exist a convergence value, which its corresponding odd part in ti is not 1...1, and its model value can remain unchanged in next steps through multiplying 3 operation and other two operations. Thus odd part must converge to 1...1, could not diverge or converge to other odds.
ti sequence in above example is: 9,42,188,816,3456,14336
odd part sequence is: 9,21,47,51,27,7
wi sequence is(according to Definition (1)):
(2+4)/4=1.5,(4+16)/16=1.25,64/64=1,(64+128)/256=0.75,512/1024=0.5,0/4096=0
Through above introduction we know,with odd we do operation in the Collatz Conjecture,on the contrast, with odd we do in above iteration method.We can easily prove that odd 1…10a(a is in binary base) is equivalent to odd 10a in second method,count of succession 1 bits in the head part only represent the iteration steps roughly.
In fact, only one case 0 bits in ti do not shift right or bit-count reduce when ti has not converged.This is:
101->1011.
This case wi do not change, both are 1/4, according to Definition (2). But next step 1011->11 , ti converges, hence this case is not worth worrying about.
Below we prove it strictly.
Suppose with odd a do
operation,and use x represent iteration steps.we can reform w
i as following(according to Definition (1)), the numerator part is exactly equal to 0 bits in t
i:
Obviously w(x) is continuous derivatived when a in odd domain definition and x in positive integer domain definition,and is bounded(>=0).
Now we try to take the derivative of w(x).
Here the derivation definition of the numerator and denominator is: (y(x+1)-y(x))/(x+1-x).
Then the derivation of the numerator is:
The derivation of the denominator is:
Where b is the odd after odd a doing x steps
operation.that is:
Observe w’(x), we know when b>3 w’(x)<0, w(x) monotonically decreases. Only when b=1(this case should equal to 4), or when b=3, , W’(x)=0. Second case of b=3 is the except case introduced above, the corresponding odd part of ti is with form ‘101’, is not worth worrying about. First case is convergence case.
Totally, this kind of iteration calculation has these cases after doing (×3 + 2m − 1) ÷ 2k as following:
Case 1: odd tail part decreases one bit, head part does not increase one bit, this case tail part should insert one bit of 1 and with zero or more 0 changing to 1, totally 1 bits weight should increase in tail part.
Case 2: odd tail part decreases one bit, head part increases one bit, if corresponding odd in (×3 + 1) ÷ 2k sequence change bigger, is just because tail part carry one bit of 1 to head part; if corresponding odd change smaller, is just we need.
Case 3: odd tail part decreases two bits, head part does not increase one bit, tail part 0 bits should shift right.
Case 4: odd tail part decreases two bits, head part increases one bit.
Case 5: odd tail part decreases three or more bits, head part increases zero or one bit.
All these cases, w(x) function are decreased step by step except some cases introduced above.
Does it exist some odds which its wi tends to 0 but not equal to 0 forever? In fact, it exists some odds which 0-bits distribution are similar and wi decreases if they exist in same sequence. Such as, 10001 and 110001(+25) or 11000011(*4-1), 10001 and 1100001(insert 0). Because the operation limits the varying of the highest part of odd, these odds could not be possible to appear in the same sequence, also could not repeatedly appear.
For example:
10001->101001->1011101->11001011->11011->111, could not produce similar 0-bits distribution.
Below prove it from another view.
Suppose odd a is in operation sequence, its corresponding odd in operation sequence is b, which highest bit is 2m, then according to Definition (2), .
Next Step, b become odd c, then
, where 2
p is the lowest bit of odd part.
When a is big enough, for example a>=210+1, .
This means when odd in operation sequence is big enough, next step, wi is smaller than which multiply 0.751 in current step.
In above example, for first odd, , for other odds, , , , wi for all other odds is equal to or bigger than wi *0.5 for first odd.
Any odds have this same regularity. Because when the tail part of the odds remain unchanged or insert 0(any tail position), the numerator part is same or bigger than 2 times of original, and the denominator become same or 2 times of original, when the head part(successive 1 part) of the odds add one 1, the denominator become 2 times again, then the final value should be bigger than 0.5 times than original.
Other cases of odd varying of tail part using method (insert 1 or insert 01 series or other change) could not be possible to cause loop or divergence.
In above example, obviously, first odd could not become other odds in within 3 steps(case of huge odds is same). But 0.751*0.751*0.751=0.423564751<0.5, it is contradictious.
If steps increase, it is also not possible to become other odds, because if steps increase, count of 1 in head part should also increase, this consumes many steps, there are no enough steps left to finish the need deformation.
We know, normally if only think about varying of head part, it needs 2 or 3 steps periodly to finish adding one 1 to head part, if tail part carry one bit of 1 to head part , it minus 1 step. And tail part is not possible to carry 1 bit two times to head part when head part add two 1 successively, because each time head part add one 1 or tail part carry 1 bit to head part, highest part of tail part produces two more 0 bits, it could not produce carrying bit successively. This is to say, normally in long odd sequence, each time head part add one 1, it at least need about 2 more steps(we ignore odds needing only 1 step to add one 1 to head part in first step here, and we also ignore odds with form 10111(many many 1)..., because although this kind of odds need 2 steps to finish adding one 1 to head part successively during some steps, it decreases count of successive 1 in tail part after each step, this is not good for changing to similar 0-bits distribution).
We know loop odd sequence and divergence odd sequence both are long sequence which has much more than 4 elements(3 steps). Suppose any huge start odd a(its corresponding odd in sequence is bigger than 210+1), a add x bits of 1 in head part and become huge odd b with similar 0-bits distribution of a, it at least need y steps to finish. Then w[b] should be bigger than 0.5x times of W[a] from calculation directly, and should be smaller than 0.751y times of W[a] through iteration calculation character introduced in above. This is:
But, no matter whether the deformation is finished or not, only to finish adding enough bits of 1 to head part, it need at least more than 2x steps(about 2.5x steps), there is no enough steps to do tail deformation. So far, the needing steps from these two angles may be contradictious.
Hence it could not be possible to exist a sequence which exists a loop or wi tends to 0 but not equal to 0 forever when all odds in the sequence are big enough. Once one corresponding odd in sequence become smaller than 210+1, it become case of small odd, and all small odds can be proved to converge easily manually.
5. The Complement Weight Function Of W[a]
To avoid proving weight function W[a] converging to 0(it is not easily to prove strictly the numerator part equal to 0 finally), we build its complement weight function. Build:
, the highest bit of a is 2m
Through the proof and introduction above, we know Wc[a] monotonically increases except when corresponding odd bi in sequence of ai is 1 or 3, and these except cases are not worth worrying about. And we also know the convergence state of Wc[a] is .
How much does Wc[a] increase in each step? Suppose odd a0,a1,a2 are three elements in order in sequence, a0 is equal to a, then
,
,
, where 2
p is 2
k in first step
operation.
Observe this formula, when 2
p is equal to 2 or 4,
is
, suppose this ratio is
, then
When n->∞, , this is a convergence state, and we know, in actual case, the count of needing steps n is a limit number, because the ratio is .
when 2p is bigger than 4, is , but still , Wc[a] also increases, this time, there is not any other limit, it can increase till to its convergence state. And more importantly, when 2p is bigger than 4, converging speed become more faster, because corresponding odd in sequence become smaller.
Of course, Wc[a] can converge in (k is any positive integer), not only . This increases the convergence chance of Wc[a].
Is it possible that Wc[a] increases continuously but never equal to ? For example, 87/128, 177/256, 357/512, 717/1024…(here does not consider ratio temporarily).
It is not possible. Observe the varying of fraction in lowest terms of Wc[a], the denominator part is equal, smaller, or 2 times of previous(because the numerator part at least can be divided by 2 in each step) in each step, when is equal, the numerator part should increase, it is possible to converge, when is 2 times of previous, the total value also increase, when is smaller, the total value should not only bigger than the value of front Wc[a] with same denominator part(if exist), but also bigger than all Wc[a] follow it. And in long sequence, usually appear the smaller case, it has many chances to appear , especially when the front element is already close to its convergence state. For example, suppose 177/256 is in sequence, if some following element with same denominator part 256 appear after many steps, its value should be bigger than all the elements between 177/256 and itself, it is much possible to equal to 255/256.
Continuously observe W
c[a], even in the 2 times case, elements are closer to convergence state by theirself. Suppose the denominator part of fraction in lowest terms of
is 2
m+2,
We know 2m<a<2m+1-1, if a is not equal to 11…101, which is very close to its convergence state 11…1, the above formula is <0. Thus proved the above conclusion.
Below give an example of start number 27 in odd sequence to verify, some decimals are written in the form which is easily to be judged equal to, bigger or smaller than 0.75.
Odds in sequence are:
37,87,97,209,441,917,1887,1927,1957,3959,3993,8037,16151,16209,32505,65141,130479,130627,65369,130821,261767,261861,523863,523969,1048097,2096433,4193225,8386989,16774787,8387697,16775849,33552381,67105787,16776639,16776783,16776891,4194243,2097129,4194269,8388555,1048571,262143
Wc[a] sequence:
37/64,87/128,97/128,209/256,441/512,917/1024,1887/2048,1927/2048,1957/2048,3959/4096,3993/4096,8037/8192,16151/16384,16209/16384,32505/32768,65141/65536,130479/(65536*2),130627/(65536*2),65369/65536,130821/(65536*2),261767(65536*4),261861/(65536*4),523863/(65536*8),523969/(65536*8),1048097/(65536*16),2096433/(65536*32),4193225/(65536*64),8386989/(65536*128),16774787/(65536*256),8387697/(65536*128),16775849/(65536*256),33552381/(65536*512),67105787/(65536*1024),16776639/(65536*256),16776783/(65536*256),16776891/(65536*256),4194243/(65536*64),2097129/(65536*32),4194269/(65536*64),8388555/(65536*128),1048571/(65536*16),262143/262144
sequence:
13/128,10/128,15/256,23/512,35/1024,53/2048,40/2048,30/2048,45/4096,34/4096,51/8192,77/16384,58/16384,87/32768,131/65536,197/(65536*2),148/(65536*2),111/(65536*2),83/(65536*2),125/(65536*4),94/(65536*4),141/(65536*8),106/(65536*8),159/(65536*16),239/(65536*32),359/(65536*64),539/(65536*128),809/(65536*256),607/(65536*256),455/(65536*256),683/(65536*512),1025/(65536*1024),769/(65536*1024),144/(65536*256),108/(65536*256),81/(65536*256),15/(65536*64),11/(65536*64),17/(65536*128),13/(65536*128),1/(65536*16)
sequence:
10/13≈0.77,0.75,0.77,0.76,0.76,0.755,0.75,0.75,0.76,0.75,0.755,0.753,0.75,0.753,0.752,0.751,0.75,0.748,0.753,0.752,0.75,0.752,0.75,0.752,0.751,0.751,0.750,0.750,0.749,0.751,0.750,0.750,0.749,0.75,0.75,0.741,0.73,0.77,0.76,0.62
6. Other Convergence Regularity
Ti has many other characters, for example, its odd part should be with form 3*y after first step, this can be easily proved:
With odd x, first operation is: 3x+22k-1, 22k-1 can be divided by 3 exactly, then total value is with form 3y.
Continue to watch ti, from this step, within each few steps, odd part should be back to form 3*y(suppose it has not yet converged before this step), this is because each next step has 22k-2p1+…pi part, when p1+…pi is even, total value is with form 3*y. This also limits the varying range of the odd part.
And after a few steps, y should be with binary form 101...1, since this time, if step count is big enough, with each some steps, the head part of y increase a 01 pair. In fact, if odd part of ti is written in 3y,3y+1,3y+2 form, the head part of the binary form of y increases 01 pair continuously. From the example of starting odd x=27, this regularity can be obviously observed, here do not list the result. This indicates again that this kind of iteration calculation has determined direction, and gradually regularly converges.
7. Conclusions
This way, we have proved that the Collatz Conjecture is true, and build a function model for the Collatz sequence, it decreases progressively to 0.
References
- Jeffrey C. Lagarias. The 3x + 1 Problem and Its Generalizations. American Mathematical Monthly; Vol. 92, No. 1, pp 3-23.(1985). [CrossRef]
- Jeffrey C. Lagarias. The 3x+1 Problem: An Overview, arXiv:2111.02635.
- Jishe Feng. Solve the 3x+1 problem by the multiplication and division of binary numbers. [CrossRef]
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