Research notes on every problem, and a library of the papers behind them. Built from the open erdos repository.
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For an asymptotic basis of order , Larsen considers three properties: (P1) ; (P2) is the union of two disjoint asymptotic bases of order ; (P3) contains a minimal asymptotic basis of order . Theorem 1 of the note states that all eight combinations of truth values occur. The combination with (P2) true and (P3) false is a union of two disjoint bases that contains no minimal basis, which answers the question no.
All eight cases come from one construction (Theorem 2). On the intervals between and , random sets and are chosen so that and are disjoint, every large integer other than the has many representations in each of and (at least representations with bounded ratio of summands), and every representation of as a sum from meets a controlled finite set chosen by a selection rule. The integers take the part that the single integers play in the Erdős–Nathanson constructions: which subsets of remain bases is decided by whether they still represent the , and the selection rule and two auxiliary functions are tuned to grant or deny each of (P1), (P2) and (P3). Erdős and Nathanson asked whether (P2) implies (P3) as Question 4 of erdos_1988_partitions_bases_into_disjoint_unions_bases; they had shown that for a large constant gives both (P2) and (P3). The source card is larsen_2026_three_questions_erdos_nathanson_asymptotic_bases; the related claim for Problem 868 is Larsen and Larsen.
Acceptance. The note was posted to the problem's forum on 2026-01-25 and
to arXiv on 2026-03-03 (arXiv:2603.03472, 7 pages, not refereed). The site's
curator, T. F. Bloom, labels the problem disproved and records the
independence of the three properties in the problem's remarks (page last
edited 2026-05-02); that is the reviewed evidence. On 2026-04-25 Przemek
Chojecki posted to the thread a write-up,
https://www.ulam.ai/research/erdos869.pdf, in which GPT-5.5 Pro streamlines
Larsen's construction, and reported that they could not formalize it fully; it
restates Larsen's result rather than proving it independently, so it is
disclosed here and has no page of its own.
A Lean 4 formalization of the construction (Lean v4.33.0), produced with
Codex and GPT-5.6 Sol and posted in lean-proofs on 2026-08-17, states the
negative answer (not_erdos_869, building on the Problem 868 development)
with no axiom declarations; this corpus has not audited its statement and
the site's label carries no Lean qualifier, so it is a link here and not
formalized evidence.
Depends on. Nothing in this wiki; the construction is self-contained apart from standard probabilistic estimates.