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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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The claim: for some c>0c>0 there are infinitely many nn such that Ω(n−2k)≥clog⁡n/log⁡log⁡n\Omega(n-2^k)\ge c\sqrt{\log n/\log\log n} for every kk with 2k≤n2^k\le n. Since log⁡n/log⁡log⁡n\sqrt{\log n/\log\log n} eventually exceeds any fixed multiple of log⁡log⁡n\log\log n and m=n−2k≤nm=n-2^k\le n, such an nn has no representation 2k+m2^k+m with Ω(m)<ϵlog⁡log⁡m\Omega(m)<\epsilon\log\log m for any fixed ϵ\epsilon, nor with Ω(m)<f(m)\Omega(m)<f(m) for any f=o(log⁡log⁡m)f=o(\log\log m), which is the negative answer to all three questions of Problem 205; the problem page spells out this reading, which none of the linked files writes. In the site's discussion thread, Terence Tao proposed the square-root bound on 2026-01-11 as the strengthening of the negative answer posted that day (Barreto–Leeham 2026), and Boris Alexeev posted a Lean formalization of it the same day at 05:31 UTC, as a live Lean session loading the file src/v4.24.0 of Alexeev's lean-proofs repository from its main branch, with the prime number theorem's asymptotic for the nn-th prime admitted as an axiom. The first two formalization links above pin that file to its commit of 05:26 UTC the same day, the version the post showed; the file was revised minutes later and again on 2026-02-08 and 2026-03-31, and both that commit and the branch head declare nth_prime_asymp as an axiom. Later that day Nat Sothanaphan posted a human-readable de-formalization of Alexeev's Lean proof (the record link above) and wrote that they had checked everything by hand. The construction takes, for E≥10E\ge10, an integer nEn_E by the Chinese remainder theorem with nE≡0(mod2E)n_E\equiv0\pmod{2^E}, nE≡0(mod3)n_E\equiv0\pmod 3 and nE≡2kn_E\equiv2^k modulo a product QkQ_k of EE odd primes for each k<Ek<E, so that nE−2kn_E-2^k is divisible by EE primes when k<Ek<E and by 2E2^E when k≥Ek\ge E; the constructed nn are therefore even, and the thread and the collection's statement file leave arbitrarily large odd counterexamples open.

Depends on. Nothing in this wiki.

Acceptance. Reviewed: the site's curator, Thomas F. Bloom, labels the problem DISPROVED (LEAN) and credits the quantified form of the negative answer to Tao and Alexeev in the problem's commentary (last edited 2026-04-05), stating the square-root bound there as the result; Nat Sothanaphan, in the site's discussion thread on 2026-01-11, posted a human-readable version of Alexeev's Lean proof of the bound (the record link above) and wrote that they had checked everything by hand. Tao's own acceptance of the construction in the thread is not counted for this page, since Tao is one of its claimants. No refereed publication exists, and the only informal account is Sothanaphan's de-formalization, which no library card digests, so the evidence is reviewed alone.

The written forms of the proof are Lean files, none built or audited by this corpus: the plby/lean-proofs copy src/latest at the pinned commit linked above (theorem not_erdos_205, no sorry, no axiom, whose own #print axioms comment lists propext, Classical.choice, Quot.sound, and which imports the PrimeNumberTheoremAnd project for the prime asymptotic); its src/v4.29.1 copy, which the formal-conjectures statement file names in a formal_proof attribute and whose header still says "Conditional on: nth_prime_asymp" although its imports and axiom comment match the src/latest copy; the earlier Jayyhk/erdos-lean file linked above, which admits nth_prime_asymp as an axiom; and the same repository's later file, which vendors a proof of it. The problem page records the statements, congruences and axiom comments, and the boundary difference (2 ^ k ≤ n in this claim against 2 ^ k < n in the collection's variant, which matters only at powers of two, excluded by nE≡0(mod3)n_E\equiv0\pmod3). No file was built, kernel-checked or audited by this corpus, and no statement-fidelity review exists, so no formalized evidence is listed. The formal files name ChatGPT, Aristotle and Alexeev as formal authors and van Doorn, Tao, Alexeev and ChatGPT as informal authors; they declare themselves formalizations of the thread's solution and are recorded as links on this page, not as a claim of their own.