User blog:Cloudy176/Proving the bound for S(7)

On his blog post, Wythagoras describes a bound for S(7), derived from Pavel Kropitz's current (as of 2010) 6 states and 2 symbols recold holder. On Pascal Michel's Behavior of busy beavers page, Michel notes that the machine with the initial configuration ...0(A0)110... runs at least 10^10^10^10^10^7 steps. This blog post gives a proof for the claim.

We begin by filling the gaps from the transition table shown in Pascal Michel's page.

Let C(n) = ...0(A0)1n0...

Then we have:

We start at C(2), which becomes C(11) after 36 steps.

C(11) becomes C(111) after 3802 steps.

Since 111 = 9*11+12, \(C(111)\) becomes \(C((50*4^{12}+1)/3) = C(279620267)\) after 20849999082655348 steps.

Since 279620267 = 9*31068917 + 14, \(C(279620267)\) becomes \(C((98 \times 4^{31068918}-11)/3)\) after some large number of steps.

Before we continue further, let's show the following lemma:

Euler's theorem gives \(2^{\phi(3^n)} = 2^{2 \times 3^{n-1}} \equiv 1 \pmod{3^n}\). Therefore 4^{3^{n-1}} \equiv 1 \pmod{3^n}\).

Combining with the above formulas yields the result that the modulo is divided by 9 by each "layer". Since we are showing that \(S(7) > 10^{10^{10^{10^{10^7}}}}\), and \((98*4^{31068918}-11)/3 \approx 10^{10^7}\), we have 3 more "layers" to go. Therefore starting from modulo \(3^8 = 6561\) would be an acceptable choice.

We continue where we left off, using modulo 6561.

\(31068918 \equiv 2583 \pmod{6561}\)

\(4^{31068918} \equiv 4^{2583} \equiv 16093 \pmod{19683}\)

\((98 \times 4^{31068918}-11)/3 \equiv 525701 \equiv 821 = 9 \times 90 + 11 \pmod{6561}\)

So the next case is C(9k+11) -> C((98*4k+1-59)/3). Letting \(A = ((98 \times 4^{31068918}-11)/3-11)/9\) we have:

\(A+1 \equiv 91 \pmod{729}\)

\(4^{A+1} \equiv 4^{2583} \equiv 1246 \pmod{2187}\)

\((98 \times 4^{A+1}-59)/3 \equiv 40683 \equiv 588 = 9 \times 64 + 12 \pmod{729}\)

The next case is C(9k+12) -> C((50*4k+1+1)/3). Again, letting \(B = ((98 \times 4^{A+1}-59)/3-12)/9\) we have:

\(B+1 \equiv 65 \pmod{81}\)

\(4^{B+1} \equiv 4^{65} \equiv 43 \pmod{243}\)

\((50 \times 4^{B+1}+1)/3 \equiv 717 \equiv 69 = 9 \times 7 + 6 \pmod{81}\)

Next case is C(9k+6) -> C((50*4k+1-59)/3). Letting \(C = ((50 \times 4^{B+1}+1)/3-6)/9\):

\(C+1 \equiv 8 \pmod{9}\)

\(4^{C+1} \equiv 4^{8} \equiv 7 \pmod{27}\)

\((50 \times 4^{C+1}-59)/3 \equiv 97 \equiv 7 = 3 \times 2 + 1 \pmod{9}\)

The next case is C(3k+1) -> ...0111(011)k(H0)0... where the machine finally halts. Letting \(D = ((50 \times 4^{C+1}-59)/3-1)/3\), the machine halts after 3D+3 steps, leaving 2D+3 1's on the tape.

In summary:

The resulting lower bounds are:

\[\Sigma(7) > 2D+3 > 10^{10^{10^{10^{18705353}}}}\]

\[S(7) > (125 \times 16^{C+2}-575 \times 4^{C+2}+228C-2226)/27 > 10^{10^{10^{10^{18705353}}}}\]

Additionally, \(10^{10^{10^{10^{18705353}}}} > 10^{10^{10^{10^{10000000}}}} = 10^{10^{10^{10^{10^7}}}}\). The proof is finally complete.