Research notes on every problem, and a library of the papers behind them. Built from the open erdos repository.
Updated
Claim. The number
is irrational: the case of
Problem 252, as a specialization of
two general theorems of P. Erdős and E. G. Straus. Theorem 3.7 of On the
irrationality of certain series, Pacific J. Math. 55 (1974), no. 1, 85--92
(printed pp. 88--89; the second paper link), states that if the positive
integers are monotonic and, for some , exceed
for large , then ,
and , together with a series with small
integer numerators, are linearly independent over ; the sequence
, with , meets these hypotheses, so is
irrational, as the card
Theorem 3.7
records. Theorem 2.26 of Some number theoretic results, Pacific J. Math.
36 (1971), no. 3, 635--646 (printed p. 642; the first link), gives the
irrationality earlier: for a monotonic integer sequence with
for large , the series
and are irrational. That section's standing
convention is not met by , but the proof uses the
only at large , so reading the theorem at is this compilation's
reading, recorded on the card
erdos_1971_number_theoretic_results.
Neither paper states the case itself. Schlage-Puchta 2006 attributes the
cases and to the 1974 paper, and formal-conjectures tags its
variant erdos_252.variants.k_eq_one research solved, crediting the same
paper. The same 1971 section's Lemma 2.14 with gives the
divisor-count series irrational, the variant outside the
question. The Monthly solution of the case is
Erdős's claim page.
Covers. The case only: is irrational. Nothing about any .
Acceptance. Refereed: the Pacific Journal of Mathematics, volume 36,
issue 3 (March 1971), pp. 635--646, and volume 55, issue 1 (November 1974),
pp. 85--92; the Crossref records of the DOIs give these data. The site labels
the problem OPEN, so no curator credit is acceptance and no reviewed
evidence is listed. The proofs are not checked here.
Depends on. Nothing in this wiki.