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arXiv 2103.15554math.GM
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Collatz(3 n + 1)猜想的工程和统计分析

An Engineering and Statistical Look at the Collatz (3n + 1) Conjecture

Brian Mohan Gurbaxani

摘要:

著名的(3 n + 1)或Collatz猜想在过去的几十年里取得了一些进展,得出了猜想为真的结论(即所有Collatz序列最终都会达到1的值),但一直顽固地拒绝证明。许多专业数学家已经应用了一系列令人印象深刻的机器来分析它,并发现了一些限制或边界,如果它们存在的话,违反Collatz猜想的地方一定是。在这里,我们试图以不同于大多数数学家或数论家的方式来看待这个猜想,也就是说,我们将从统计学家/数据科学家和工程师的角度来研究这个猜想。作为一名统计学家或数据科学家,我们把Collatz序列看作是自然界中发现的序列,就像某种自然过程产生的时间序列的集合,暂时忽略它们完全确定的起源。作为一名工程师,我们试图修补Collatz序列,看看是什么让它们工作,并在首先明确我们所说的有趣的含义之后,对序列进行工程师-调整和构建-改变,同样做有趣的事情。虽然这些分析并没有证明Collatz猜想,但像其他努力一样,他们提出了理由,认为该猜想可能是真的,并且希望类似于Collatz序列的序列的分析将告诉我们一些关于Collatz猜想本身的性质,和/或带领我们进入有趣和富有成效的新方向。事实上,在这些类Collatz程序的序列中揭示的许多现象可以说比Collatz猜想本身更有趣,并且提出了与Collatz猜想本身一样有趣的假设。

英文摘要:

The famous (3n + 1) or Collatz conjecture has admitted some progress over the last several decades towards the conclusion that the conjecture is true (i.e. that all Collatz sequences will eventually reach a value of one), but has stubbornly resisted a proof. Many professional mathematicians have applied an impressive array of machinery to its analysis, and discovered some limits or boundaries to where violations of the Collatz conjecture must be, if they exist. Here we attempt to look at the conjecture differently than most mathematicians or number theorists, i.e. we will study the conjecture from the points of view of a statistician/data scientist and of an engineer. As a statistician or data scientist, we look at Collatz sequences as if they were sequences found in nature, like a collection of time series produced by some natural process, ignoring for the time being their completely deterministic origins. As an engineer, we try to tinker with Collatz sequences to see what makes them tick, and engineer -- tweak and build -- changes to the sequences that likewise do interesting things, after first specifying exactly what we mean by interesting. Although these analyses do not yield a proof of the Collatz conjecture, like other efforts they present reasons to think that the conjecture is probably true, and the hope is that the analyses of sequences similar to Collatz sequences will tell us something about the nature of Collatz conjecture itself, and/or lead us into interesting and fruitful new directions. Indeed, many of the phenomenon revealed in the sequences of these Collatz-like programs are arguably more interesting than, and suggest conjectures that are as interesting as, the Collatz conjecture itself.

机构、总结、中文摘要均由AI分析而来,可能存在错误,请以论文正文为准。

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