Research notes on every problem, and a library of the papers behind them. Built from the open erdos repository.
Updated
Claim. The manuscript A quadratic bound for Jacobsthal's function of the OpenAI mathematics release, dated 25 September 2026 and authored by OpenAI (its intake card is openai_2026_quadratic_bound_jacobsthal_function), proves as its Theorem 1.1 that Jacobsthal's function , the least such that every consecutive integers contain one coprime to any given positive integer with at most distinct prime factors, satisfies
uniformly in the modulus and in the position of the interval. The release states that its manuscripts were produced by an internal OpenAI model and come at different stages of verification, not all with Lean formalizations. Its abstract presents this as a yes to Jacobsthal's quadratic-bound question, the displayed question of Problem 970. The manuscript states the covering form of this problem. Its introduction observes that is the greatest length of an interval that the divisibility classes of at most primes can cover, and calls one prescribed residue class at each prime below a cutoff another form of the same covering problem, through the Chinese remainder theorem. Its Theorem 1.2 (the library's Theorem 1.2 page) is that covering statement at one interval length: for every large and every choice of one class for each prime , at least integers of , , avoid every class. So no choice of classes covers , and
for every large : a saving of over Iwaniec's and a yes to the first displayed question, , directly from the manuscript. The manuscript does not name or Problem 687, and its catalog entry speaks only of Jacobsthal's question and the displayed bound of Problem 970: the reading of Theorem 1.2 as a bound on is made here and in the Status paragraph of the problem page.
Covers. The first displayed question, , with the saving over Iwaniec's from Theorem 1.2. Not covered: the second displayed question, , and the estimate of , which if the claim stands lies between the lower bounds on the problem page and .
Formalization. The release's Lean tree at the pinned revision states the
theorem as the challenge erdos_970_iterated_log, of type
NumberTheoryLean.Targets.JacobsthalIteratedLog, in
ComparatorChallenges/JacobsthalImproved.lean (body sorry, the challenge
form) and proves a declaration of the same name and type in
OAI/NumberTheory/Jacobsthal/Conclusions/IteratedLogBound.lean. The target
asserts a constant such that every has some
with IsJacobsthalBound k m, and that
predicate says that for every positive with at most distinct prime
factors and every integer , some with is coprime to .
The release's catalog lean/formalization.yaml lists the manuscript and
records the plain quadratic declaration erdos_970_quadratic
(Conclusions/QuadraticBound.lean, comparator configuration
ComparatorChallenges/Jacobsthal.json) as its formalized main result. The
tree also holds the covering statement for one class per prime, as
interior declarations: cutoffSurvivors Y z residue
(OAI/NumberTheory/Jacobsthal/Primes/LargePrimeDeletion.lean) is the set
of with residue p for every prime ,
and OAI.Erdos970.Erdos970Final.source_root_survivor_lower
(Conclusions/SourceRootCompletion.lean, with sourceY z the floor of
) bounds the survivor count below, for every residue
choice and all large , in the form Theorem 1.2 takes in the tree;
RootCutoffSurvivors.cutoff_lower_of_root_lower carries that bound to
cutoffSurvivors, and erdos_970_quadratic is proved from it. None of
these is on the comparator surface or was audited for fidelity, and
nothing in the tree names , the primorial or this problem, so
the formalization reaches this problem only through the unformalized
readings above. The corpus's verification built erdos_970_quadratic at
the pinned revision, found its axioms to be propext, Classical.choice
and Quot.sound only, and audited its statement against the formulation
of Problem 970, as
that problem's claim page
records; that declaration concerns , not , so formalized is not
listed here. The survivor declarations are recorded from the source text and
were not built or audited.
Acceptance. None. The manuscript is a release preprint with no journal
record and no independent review known here, and the Lean statement the
corpus built and audited concerns rather than this problem's covering
function, so no evidence is listed. The claim enters as claimed and the
problem's standing stays open.
Depends on. Theorem 1.2 of the manuscript, whose direct reading as a bound on is a remark made here, not a reviewed result.