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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. Let dn=pn+1−pnd_n=p_{n+1}-p_n. For every m≥1m\ge1 there are infinitely many nn with

dn<dn+1<⋯<dn+m−1d_n<d_{n+1}<\cdots<d_{n+m-1}

and infinitely many nn with dn>dn+1>⋯>dn+m−1d_n>d_{n+1}>\cdots>d_{n+m-1}: strings of m+1m+1 consecutive primes whose mm successive gaps increase, or decrease. The case m=3m=3 of the increasing runs is the question of Problem 6, answered yes. The theorem is in W. D. Banks, T. Freiberg and C. L. Turnage-Butterbaugh, Consecutive primes in tuples, Acta Arith. 167 (2015), no. 3, 261–266, first posted as arXiv:1311.7003 on 27 November 2013. The statement is Corollary 1 of the paper, digested on its library card, whose Corollary 2 also gives strings with each gap dividing the next. The input is the Maynard–Tao theorem that an admissible tuple of linear forms takes at least mm prime values at infinitely many arguments, in the form the paper states. In Maynard's paper, digested on its library card, the shift case is Proposition 4.2 together with the large-kk step of Section 4, which shows that every admissible kk-set with k≥Cm2e4mk\ge Cm^2e^{4m} has at least m+1m+1 primes among the n+hin+h_i for infinitely many nn; the version for linear forms is an unnumbered remark of the introduction, and Theorem 1.1 itself is the bound lim inf⁡n(pn+m−pn)≪m3e4m\liminf_n(p_{n+m}-p_n)\ll m^3e^{4m} deduced from that step. The paper's own contribution is to deduce that the mm primes can be taken consecutive, after which the choice of the tuple {x+2j}\{x+2^j\} orders the gaps: consecutive primes n+2νjn+2^{\nu_j} have gaps 2νj+1−2νj2^{\nu_{j+1}}-2^{\nu_j}, each larger than the sum of the earlier ones, and the tuple {x−2j}\{x-2^j\} gives the decreasing runs. The question goes back to the closing questions of Erdős and Turán's 1948 paper, digested on its library card.

Acceptance. The paper is a refereed journal publication, the refereed evidence; the publisher's record gives the year 2015 and the page is dated by the preprint's first posting. The site's curator, Thomas Bloom, labels the problem proved and credits the affirmative answer to this paper, the reviewed evidence.

Formalization. The linked Lean file in Boris Alexeev's lean-proofs repository, pinned at the commit in the link, declares itself a Lean formalization of a solution to Problem 6, names the three authors above as its informal authors, the formal-conjectures authors as statement authors, and Codex and GPT-5.6 Sol as its formal authors. Its theorem erdos_6 states that the set of nn with dn<dn+1<dn+2d_n<d_{n+1}<d_{n+2} is infinite, the analytic input being the Maynard–Tao theorem in the form the paper uses; a text scan of that top file alone, not of the modules it imports (it imports ErdosProblems.Erdos6.LargeExcess, which imports two further modules), found no sorry, axiom, native_decide or admit token. The statement file in google-deepmind/formal-conjectures states the question and the two general runs with sorry, marked research solved, so it is not a formalization link. The site's Lean qualification is matched by no proof link on the problem page itself; this file is the only Lean proof of the statement found. This corpus has not built or kernel-checked it, so no formalized evidence is listed.

Depends on. Nothing beyond the cited paper.