Research notes on every problem, and a library of the papers behind them. Built from the open erdos repository.
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Scope and attribution. This is a compilation-derived consequence of the Fan–Pollack lower bound for H(n) and the public upper-bound manuscript's Corollary 1.2. It is not a numbered result or an asserted novelty of either source. The complete elementary implication is proved below. The lower and upper proof chains retain their own source, review, and acceptance qualifications.
Statement
For integers , use the canonical threshold definitions
Both minima exist, and . There are unique real constants with
such that, for or and its corresponding constant , every satisfies
and
This identifies each constant as a limit superior; it does not evaluate either constant or prove .
Proof
Put and . The two cited bounds give
while, for every ,
For , define the finite real numbers
The factors and are positive. Since , we have . Taking logarithms twice in the source bounds, and multiplying by the positive factor , gives infinitely often and eventually for every .
Consequently the tail suprema of both sequences are finite: the eventual bound with bounds the tail, and the earlier terms are a finite set of finite numbers. The tail suprema decrease and are bounded below. Their limits therefore exist as real numbers; define
The infinitely many lower exceedances force . Pointwise gives . The eventual upper bound for every gives . This proves the stated interval, including strict positivity and finiteness.
For either sequence and its finite limit superior , fix . Convergence of its tail suprema gives a tail on which . There must also be infinitely many : otherwise some entire tail would satisfy , forcing its limit superior to be at most , a contradiction.
Apply this to and , multiply by the positive reciprocal scaling factor, and exponentiate twice. These strictly increasing operations give exactly the two displayed bounds for and . No positivity assumption on is needed.
Finally, if another real number had both properties for a given sequence, the infinitely-often lower bound would imply , and the eventual upper bound would imply , for every . Thus , proving uniqueness.
Meaning for Problem 820
The existential common-coefficient question in Problem 820 asks for one positive constant giving these lower and upper quantifiers for . Granting both cited bounds, the deduction above gives such a constant, even though its value is undetermined; the upper bound rests on an unpublished, unreviewed manuscript. The same argument gives a possibly different coefficient for the fixed-partner threshold ; its eventual upper bound with already follows directly from the manuscript.
None of these limit-superior statements proves that infinitely often. That coprimality subquestion, the values of the constants, and whether the two optimal constants coincide remain distinct questions. This implication is an ordinary mathematical deduction, not a local Lean verification or a claim of publication or community acceptance.