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Research notes on every problem, and a library of the papers behind them. Built from the open erdos repository.

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Claim. Theorem 1 of Enrique Barschkis, A negative answer to an eventual covering question for rational dilates (manuscript posted 13 April 2026 under the site username ebarschkis), states: there is a measurable E⊂(0,∞)E\subset(0,\infty) of positive Lebesgue measure and the interval J=[16/25,2/3]J=[16/25,2/3] such that for every x∈Jx\in J there are infinitely many integers n≥1n\ge1 with x∉rnEx\notin\frac rnE for every integer r≥1r\ge1, that is, nx∉r⋅Enx\notin r\cdot E for every rr. Since JJ has positive measure, the statement of Problem 1197, that for almost every x>0x>0 all large nn admit such an rr, fails for this EE, and the answer is no. As the manuscript describes the construction, it varies the construction of Buczolich and Mauldin (Mathematika 46 (1999), 337–341). Write Φ(H)\Phi(H) for the shadow of HH, the set of x∈[1/2,1)x\in[1/2,1) with nx∈Hnx\in H for some integer n≥1n\ge1, and IF=(8/9,1)I_F=(8/9,1). A lemma of theirs, stated in the manuscript without proof, gives a threshold K0K_0 such that for every k≥K0k\ge K_0 and every large dyadic shell (2ν−1,2ν)(2^{\nu-1},2^\nu) there is an open set Hk,νH_{k,\nu} inside the shell whose shadow contains JJ and meets IFI_F in measure below 5⋅2−k5\cdot2^{-k}. The manuscript takes Hk=Hk,νkH_k=H_{k,\nu_k} for every k≥Kk\ge K, where K≥max⁡{K0,7}K\ge\max\{K_0,7\}, along a strictly increasing sequence of shells, which makes the HkH_k pairwise disjoint, and sets E=IF∖Φ(F)E=I_F\setminus\Phi(F) with F=⋃k≥KHkF=\bigcup_{k\ge K}H_k; EE has positive measure because the shadows' measures inside IFI_F sum to less than ∑k≥K5⋅2−k=5⋅2−K+1≤5/64\sum_{k\ge K}5\cdot2^{-k}=5\cdot2^{-K+1}\le5/64, below 1/91/9, the length of IFI_F. A lemma of the manuscript's own then gives every x∈Jx\in J infinitely many nn with nx∈Fnx\in F, one in each HkH_k, and for such nn no rr exists, since nx∈r⋅Enx\in r\cdot E would put a point of EE into Φ(F)\Phi(F). The Lean file posted with the manuscript and the forum post describe the lemma's data as coming from Kronecker's approximation theorem and prime-number estimates. The manuscript remarks that the question is trivially true when EE contains an interval (a,b)(a,b), since (nx/b,nx/a)(nx/b,nx/a) has length above one for large nn, so the counterexample contains no interval.

AI systems and formalization. The forum post says the author explored ideas with GPT Pro and that the author ran the solution through several independent instances of GPT 5.4 Pro to check its soundness; the manuscript names no AI system. The Lean file posted with it formalizes the counterexample with one remaining sorry, the approximation data taken from Buczolich and Mauldin. A repository posted on 15 April 2026 closes that gap, crediting Aristotle and ChatGPT, through two theorems of the PNT+ project (a Chebyshev asymptotic and a prime in a short interval), which its README says are restated with admit in a bridge file rather than imported. A post of 21 June 2026 in the claimant's thread presents the Jayyhk erdos-lean file as the thread's formalization with the PNT+ dependency removed by Claude Opus 4.7, so that no additional axioms remain; the file itself carries no author header, and its docstring says it formalizes this theorem and construction. It is linked above on the basis of that post. The file in Boris Alexeev's lean-proofs repository, which the statement file in formal-conjectures names as the formal proof, declares GPT Pro and Enrique Barschkis as its informal authors and Aristotle, GPT-5.4 Pro, Enrique Barschkis, Tom de Groot and Codex as its formal authors, and states not_erdos_1197: there is a measurable E⊂(0,∞)E\subset(0,\infty) of positive measure such that for every x∈[16/25,2/3]x\in[16/25,2/3] (the file's I_inf, defined in an imported module) infinitely many n≥1n\ge1 admit no r≥1r\ge1 with x=(r/n)ex=(r/n)e, e∈Ee\in E. It contains no sorry. All four are linked above as formalization links: the Barschkis, Tomodovodoo and Alexeev files declare this claimant's result as their source, and the Jayyhk file is presented as its dependency-free version in the claimant's thread. This corpus has built and audited none of them, so no formalized evidence is listed, and the formal-conjectures statement file is not a formalization link.

Acceptance. The site's curator, Thomas F. Bloom, marks Problem 1197 disproved, with the Lean qualification, and credits the counterexample to ebarschkis, the reviewed evidence. The manuscript is not refereed. Thread comments report checks made with AI systems; they are not review. The page is dated by the forum post and the repository's upload of the same day.

Depends on. Nothing beyond the cited manuscript and the Buczolich–Mauldin paper whose construction it varies.