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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. The answer to Problem 926 is yes: for every fixed k≥4k\ge4, ex(n;Hk)≪kn3/2\mathrm{ex}(n;H_k)\ll_k n^{3/2}. The claimed result is Theorem 1.4 of Z. Füredi, On a Turán type problem of Erdős, Combinatorica 11 (1991), no. 1, 75--79 (printed p. 76): for integers n≥1n\ge1, k≥2k\ge2 and s≥1s\ge1, the bipartite graph Lk,sL^{k,s} with vertices x0x_0, y1,…,yky_1,\dots,y_k and xijαx_{ij}^\alpha (1≤i<j≤k1\le i<j\le k, 1≤α≤s1\le\alpha\le s), and edges x0yix_0y_i, xijαyix_{ij}^\alpha y_i and xijαyjx_{ij}^\alpha y_j, satisfies

ex(n;Lk,s)<n(k−1)4+n3/2sk(k−1)2+2(k−2)(k−1)8.\mathrm{ex}(n;L^{k,s})<\frac{n(k-1)}4+n^{3/2}\sqrt{\frac{sk(k-1)^2+2(k-2)(k-1)}8}.

At s=1s=1 the graph Lk,1L^{k,1} is the problem's HkH_k, under the reading that assigns a separate vertex z{i,j}z_{\{i,j\}} to each unordered pair of the yiy_i: identify xx with x0x_0, each yiy_i with itself and z{i,j}z_{\{i,j\}} with xij1x_{ij}^1. The bound is then O(k3/2n3/2)O(k^{3/2}n^{3/2}), so for fixed kk it is Ok(n3/2)O_k(n^{3/2}), the bound asked for; the abstract states the simpler sufficient condition that k3/2n3/2k^{3/2}n^{3/2} edges force a copy of LkL^k. The exponent is right: blowing up each vertex of an extremal C4C_4-free graph into k−1k-1 vertices gives LkL^k-free graphs with (1+o(1))k−12n3/2(1+o(1))\frac{\sqrt{k-1}}2n^{3/2} edges, as the paper notes. The paper presents the theorem as a step toward Erdős's conjecture that every bipartite graph whose induced subgraphs all have a vertex of degree at most 22 has extremal number O(n3/2)O(n^{3/2}); the problem asks only about the family HkH_k, and the dependence on kk, which Alon, Krivelevich and Sudakov later improved (their claim page), is not part of the question.

Acceptance. Reviewed: the site's curator, Thomas Bloom, labels the problem proved and credits this paper with the answer yes and the bound ex(n;Hk)≪(kn)3/2\mathrm{ex}(n;H_k)\ll(kn)^{3/2}; Füredi had no part in that entry. Refereed: Combinatorica (Crossref record accessed: volume 11, issue 1, pp. 75--79, issued March 1991; the day is the issue's nominal first day, used for this page's date). The source has a library source card. Read depth: printed pp. 75--77 for the definitions, the statement of Theorem 1.4 and its proof pointer; the proof, through the set-system Lemma 1.5, is not checked. The acceptance rests on the publication and the curator's acceptance; nothing is independently reviewed by this project; the site's label is the discussion link.

Formalization. The file src/latest/ErdosProblems/Erdos926.lean of Boris Alexeev's repository plby/lean-proofs (linked above at the commit that the formal-conjectures statement file pins; in the repository since 2026-08-17) declares itself a Lean formalization of a solution to the problem, naming Zoltán Füredi as its informal author and, as formal authors, the AI systems Codex and GPT-5.6 Sol. Its docstring says that it proves an explicit Füredi-type estimate for every finite HkH_k-free graph and deduces ex(n,Hk)=Ok(n3/2)\mathrm{ex}(n,H_k)=O_k(n^{3/2}), with HkH_k built from one center, kk branch vertices and one vertex for every pair of branches, the distinct-pair reading. The formal-conjectures statement erdos_926 names the file in its formal_proof attribute (the problem page records that file). This project has not built, replayed or audited it, so the page lists no formalized evidence.