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Forbidden subgraphs in divisor graphs

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corollary_3: Davis's corollary that, for a finite family of connected forbidden subgraphs of divisor graphs, directed or undirected, the largest subset of one to n avoiding them has size c n plus a small error and the number of such subsets grows at rate beta, both effectively computable.

corollary_4: Davis's corollary that the largest subset of one to n with no element dividing two others has size c_2 n plus a small explicit error, and the number of such subsets grows at rate beta_2, both constants effectively computable; the paper leaves the irrationality of c_2 open.

theorem_1: Davis's general theorem that, for a downward-closed family of finite sets of positive integers that splits over divisibility-unrelated parts and is invariant under dilation, the largest admissible subset of one to n has size c n plus a small error and the number of admissible subsets grows at an exponential rate beta, both given by explicit series.


Damek Davis, Forbidden subgraphs in divisor graphs and an Erdős divisibility problem, arXiv:2604.17613, 2026. The copy read for this card is arXiv version v1 (stamped 19 Apr 2026). Provenance: the PDF was obtained from https://arxiv.org/pdf/2604.17613 on 2026-09-23; 505,713 bytes. The arXiv HTML rendering and source archive of the same version are available from the same arXiv record. The arXiv record names arXiv's non-exclusive distribution license (arXiv:2604.17613), every other right reserved.

Result for Problem 1062. Davis's Corollary 4 (p. 4) applies to sets with no three distinct x,y,zx,y,z for which x∣yx\mid y and x∣zx\mid z. If f(n)f(n) is the maximum size of such a subset of {1,…,n}\{1,\ldots,n\}, then

f(n)=c2n+o(n)f(n)=c_2 n+o(n)

for an effectively computable constant c2c_2. Corollary 4 gives a stronger error bound and also an exponential counting rate for the number of such subsets. The sentence following that corollary explicitly leaves the irrationality of c2c_2 open. The paper therefore settles convergence and effective computability of the limit, while leaving the irrationality clause of Problem 1062 unanswered. Its proof uses McNew's theorem on local divisor graph statistics. The acknowledgments (p. 8) credit ChatGPT 5.4 Pro with the proof of an initial version of Corollary 4, for the two-fork case alone, and credit the author with proposing Theorem 1 and Corollary 3, the general framework.

Bears on. #1062: Corollary 4 (p. 4) concerns the problem's f(n)f(n) and gives f(n)=c2n+o(n)f(n)=c_2n+o(n) with c2c_2 effectively computable, so lim⁡f(n)/n\lim f(n)/n exists; this answers how large f(n)f(n) can be in asymptotic form and does not decide whether the limit is irrational, which the paper says remains open. Section 5.1 (p. 7) reports the computed bound c2≥0.6729c_2\ge0.6729.

Results.

  • Theorem 1 (p. 2): for a downward-closed family of finite sets that splits over divisibility-unrelated parts and is invariant under dilation, the largest admissible subset of {1,…,n}\{1,\ldots,n\} has size cPn+o(n)c_{\mathcal P}n+o(n) and the number of admissible subsets is βPn+o(n)\beta_{\mathcal P}^{n+o(n)}, with explicit error terms and series for the constants, effectively computable when membership is decidable.
  • Corollary 3 (p. 3): the same for the subsets avoiding a finite family of connected forbidden subgraphs of divisor graphs, directed or undirected.
  • Corollary 4 (p. 4): the two-fork case, f(n)=c2n+o(n)f(n)=c_2n+o(n) and lim⁡q(n)1/n=β2\lim q(n)^{1/n}=\beta_2 for the subsets with no element dividing two others.

Read status: claims checked for Theorem 1, Corollaries 3 and 4 and Section 5, read clause by clause on the page images; McNew's theorem was not read in its source, the numerical work was not rerun, and nothing here is independently reviewed.

No file of this source is held: no license on record permits its redistribution, and the card cites the edition it names above.