A special sequence and primorial numbers

Abstract

In this paper, we study a class of functions defined recursively on the set of natural numbers in terms of the greatest common divisor algorithm of two numbers and requiring a minimality condition. These functions are permutations, products of infinitely many cycles that depend on certain breaks in the natural numbers involving the primes, and some special products of primes with a density of approximately $29.4\%$. We show that these functions split into only two equivalence classes (modulo the natural equivalence relation of eventually identical maps): one is the class of the identity map and the other is generated by a map whose discrete derivative is almost periodic with ``periods" the primorial numbers.

18 pages and 4 figures