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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. For every δ>0\delta>0 there is a number C(δ)C(\delta) such that

N(X,δ)<C(δ) X1/2for all X≥1,N(X,\delta)<C(\delta)\,X^{1/2}\qquad\text{for all }X\ge1,

where N(X,δ)N(X,\delta) is the largest number of points in a disc of radius XX whose pairwise distances all lie at distance at least δ\delta from the nearest integer, as Problem 465 defines it. This is the Theorem of Konyagin's paper (p. 630), translated from the Russian statement as the result page theorem translates it; the digest is on the source card konyagin_2001_distances_between_points_plane.

What it settles. Both questions of the problem. The bound is o(X)o(X), which is the first question. For the second, given ε>0\varepsilon>0 one has C(δ)X1/2≤X1/2+εC(\delta)X^{1/2}\le X^{1/2+\varepsilon} as soon as X≥C(δ)1/εX\ge C(\delta)^{1/\varepsilon}, so N(X,δ)<X1/2+εN(X,\delta)<X^{1/2+\varepsilon} for all large XX, which is what N(X,δ)<X1/2+o(1)N(X,\delta)<X^{1/2+o(1)} asks (an authored one-line remark). Konyagin's introduction states the question of Erdős and Graham in exactly this form and names a positive answer as the paper's aim. No exponent below 1/21/2 holds for all small δ\delta: Sárközy's Theorem 1 of 1976 gives N(X,δ)>X1/2−δ1/7N(X,\delta)>X^{1/2-\delta^{1/7}}, compiled on Problem 466, and the lower exponent 1/2−δ1/71/2-\delta^{1/7} tends to 1/21/2 as δ→0\delta\to0. The first question had been settled in 1976 by Sárközy's bound of order X/log⁡log⁡XX/\log\log X, the accepted partial claim beside this page.

Argument, in outline. Exponential sums Ak(φ)=∑je(k(xjcos⁡φ+yjsin⁡φ))A_k(\varphi)=\sum_je(k(x_j\cos\varphi+y_j\sin\varphi)) averaged over the direction φ\varphi; the inequality ∑kdk∫02π∣Ak(φ)∣2 dφ≥0\sum_kd_k\int_0^{2\pi}|A_k(\varphi)|^2\,d\varphi\ge0 for nonnegative weights; Bessel's identity, which turns each cross term into 2πJ0(2πk d(Pi,Pj))2\pi J_0(2\pi k\,d(P_i,P_j)); the asymptotic expansion of J0J_0; Lemma 1 (p. 632), a cosine polynomial with nonnegative coefficients that is negative together with the absolute value of its conjugate on [2πδ,2π(1−δ)][2\pi\delta,2\pi(1-\delta)]; and weights dk=(k/2)1/2ckd_k=(k/2)^{1/2}c_k that make the off-diagonal contribution at most −A(2X)−1/2n2-A(2X)^{-1/2}n^2 against error terms O(n)O(n), whence n=O(X1/2)n=O(X^{1/2}). The proof (pp. 630--633) is not checked here.

Acceptance. Refereed: S. V. Konyagin, On the distances between points on the plane (in Russian), Mat. Zametki 69 (2001), no. 4, 630--633, Brief Communications, received 21 September 2000 and revised 5 October 2000; English translation, About distances between points on the plane, Math. Notes 69 (2001), no. 3--4, 578--581 (not held). Reviewed: the site's curator, Thomas F. Bloom, marks Problem 465 PROVED and credits this paper with the bound of order X1/2X^{1/2} in the problem's commentary (page last edited 18 January 2026); the curator neither wrote nor submitted the result. Not formalized: no Lean statement of the problem exists in formal-conjectures, as the problem page records, and nothing was built or audited here. The page is dated by the issue, no. 4 of the January--June volume, taken as April 2001, since the records give no finer posting date.