A conjecture related to collatz

collatz conjecturenumber theory

I will assume that the reader knows the Collatz ($3n+1$) conjecture.

Terminology: let's say that a natural number $ n $ is a descendant of $ m $ if the Collatz procedure starting at $ m $ eventually leads to $ n $. For example, $ 5 $ is a descendant of $ 7 $ since the Collatz procedure starting at $ 7 $ yields
$$
7 \rightarrow 22 \rightarrow 11 \rightarrow 34 \rightarrow 17 \rightarrow 52 \rightarrow 26\rightarrow 13 \rightarrow 40 \rightarrow 20 \rightarrow 10 \rightarrow 5 $$

Let's also say that $ m $ is an ancestor of $ n $. (So $ 7 $ is an ancestor of $ 5 $.)

Question 1: Is it true that all natural numbers $ n $ have an ancestor that is a multiple of $ 3 $?

Question 2: If Question 1 is non-trivial, does anyone happen to know if it implies the Collatz conjecture? On the other hand, if it is trivial, or at least proven, can they point me to proof?

Question 3: Assuming the answer to Question 1 is affirmative, can such an ancestor be found by repeatedly applying the "greedy" reverse-collatz function
$$
g(n) =
\begin{cases}
\frac{n-1}{3} & n \cong 4\ (\mathrm{mod}\ 6) \\
2n & n \cong 1, 2,\mathrm{or}\ 5\ (\mathrm{mod}\ 6)
\end{cases}
$$

I find it interesting to note that, as wonderfully rich as is the topology of the collatz "tree" (whose topology is described by the ancestor/descendant relationship), the topology of the ancestor tree is trivial above any number which is a multiple of 3. (The tree does not branch above multiples of 3.) So an affirmative answer to Question 1 puts some interesting restrictions on the topology of this grand tree.

Best Answer

For positive integer $\ m\ $ , we need a positive integer $\ n>m\ $ with $\ 3\mid n\ $, such that the collatz-sequence beginning with $\ n\ $ contains $\ m\ $.

  • If $\ 3\mid m\ $ , $\ n=2m\ $ does the job.
  • If $\ 3\nmid m\ $ , there exists positive integer $\ s\ $ with $\ 2^s\cdot m\equiv 1\mod 9\ $ Then, define $\ n:=\frac{2^s\cdot m-1}{3}\ $. Since there are infinite many possible $\ s\ $, we can choose $\ s\ $ in the way that $\ n>m\ $, also $\ n\ $ is a multiple of $\ 3\ $. Then, the collatz sequence obviously arrives at $\ m\ $

So, question $1$ can be answered with "yes".

Not sure about question $3$

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