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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. Rafik Zeraoulia (the site account Zeraoulia Rafik) submitted a proof claim on the site's proof-claim tab on 14 July 2026 (the claim's date), asserting a computer-assisted verification of the site's vertex formulation of Problem 580 for every n≤19n\le19: every graph on n≤19n\le19 vertices in which at least n/2n/2 vertices have degree at least n/2n/2 contains every tree on at most n/2n/2 vertices. The argument, as the summary sketches it, turns on n=18n=18: a counterexample with the fewest edges is forced into a 9+99+9 split, nine vertices each of degree exactly 99 beside nine vertices spanning no edge; the 4747 trees on nine vertices are cut down, through known special cases, to four rooted-core configurations; those are handled by a Hall-type extension step and four SAT instances that the solver CaDiCaL reports unsatisfiable, so no counterexample of that shape survives; and n=19n=19 is brought back to n=18n=18 by removing one vertex of high degree. The thread comment of 16 July 2026 announces the manuscript Certified SAT Verification of the Vertex Formulation of Erdős Problem #580 for Orders at Most 19, with an independent second-solver check and the Zenodo archive; the verified range stays 1≤n≤191\le n\le19. The submission names the AI system OpenAI GPT-5.6 Thinking as a tool. The claim was submitted as a full proof claim and reclassified as partial by a moderator after a comment of 23 July 2026 on the claim's own thread, which calls the check apparently correct for n≤19n\le19 but only a partial proof, lacking a bridge to Zhao's threshold, and remarks without substantiation that the commenter extended the check to n≤21n\le21; the claimant's reply of 1 August 2026 retains the result as a finite partial verification and describes work toward such a bridge. Both are thread posts, not results. The claim is recorded from the tab summary and the thread comments; this corpus has not checked the manuscript, the archive or the SAT certificates.

Submission note. Posted to erdosproblems.com as a proof claim by Rafik Zeraoulia (account Rafikzeraoulia2025) on 14 July 2026, giving "OpenAI GPT-5.6 Thinking" as the AI used:

I claim a computer-assisted verification of the literal vertex formulation of Erdős Problem #580 for every n≤19n\leq 19. For n=18n=18, an edge-minimal counterexample reduces to a graph partitioned into sets LL and SS of size 99, with every vertex of LL having degree 99 and SS independent. Known special cases reduce the 4747 trees on nine vertices to four marked rooted-core configurations. A Hall-type extension argument and four SAT encodings, all proved UNSAT by CaDiCaL, exclude every reduced counterexample. The case n=19n=19 follows by deleting one high-degree vertex. This does not cover the stronger classical edge formulation.

Covers. The site's vertex formulation for every n≤19n\le19, and nothing else: the claimant states that the check does not cover the edge formulation (every tree with at most ⌊n/2⌋\lfloor n/2\rfloor edges, Zhao's Conjecture 1.3), and it says nothing about any n≥20n\ge20. Zhao's theorem, on its claim page, settles every n≥n0n\ge n_0 for an unstated n0n_0; if this claim is correct it closes n≤19n\le19 of the finite remainder and leaves 20≤n<n020\le n<n_0 open.

Depends on. Nothing in this wiki: the argument rests on embedding results for small trees and on SAT certificates, none of which is recorded here.

Standing. Claimed: the result is a proof-claim tab submission with a Zenodo archive and an announced manuscript, neither refereed; the site states that a listing on the tab is no guarantee of correctness and that nobody associated with the site has examined it, and no named mathematician's acceptance is recorded.