Research notes on every problem, and a library of the papers behind them. Built from the open erdos repository.
Updated
Claim. A finite -uniform hypergraph occurs in every -uniform
hypergraph of chromatic number exactly when, after its isolated
vertices are deleted, it is linear, every edge-node of its Levi graph meets a
bridge, and every Berge cycle has even length. This is the characterization that
Problem 593 asks for, and the same answer
that Li's preprint gives. The
manuscript is Samuil Petkov's paper titled, in print, Obligatory Triple Systems:
An Alternative Proof (the README of its repository, SamPetkov/Erdos593, calls
it Obligatory Triple Systems: Alternative Proof and Lean Verification;
manuscript revision of 2026-07-21 per that README; the links above are pinned to
the repository's commit of 2026-10-04).
Submission note. Posted to erdosproblems.com as a proof claim by Samuil Petkov (account Sam_Petkov) on 15 July 2026, giving "5.6 Sol Pro" as the AI used:
We characterize exactly which finite triple systems must occur in every uncountably chromatic triple system: after deleting isolated vertices, they are precisely the linear systems in which every hyperedge-node meets a bridge in the Levi graph and every Berge cycle has even length. The proof first forces private-vertex expansions of finite bipartite graphs using codegrees, closure chains, and a rainbow bipartite argument; then proves closure under disjoint unions and one-point amalgamations via rooted-copy abundance; next cuts the Levi graph along bridges to recover the constructive decomposition; finally it builds explicit uncountably chromatic avoiding hosts when linearity, the bridge condition, or parity fails. The new ingredients are the direct expansion argument, the rooted-abundance lemma, and the finite-trace analysis of sequence lifts, all carried out in ZFC. Notes: Proof completed with ChatGPT-5.6 Sol Pro, verified independently by Pro 2 times and Ultra 2 times. Formalisation underway. Not verified by an expert!
Argument, in outline. The manuscript proves the forcing direction first: a rainbow lemma, proved probabilistically, supplies the injectivity needed to force the private-vertex expansion of every finite bipartite graph, and a lemma on the abundance of rooted copies gives closure under one-point amalgamation, singular uncountable cardinals included. To pass from the Levi-graph criterion to the generated class it removes chosen bridges of the Levi graph, identifies each remaining component with such an expansion, and recovers the amalgamation order from the tree structure of the quotient. For the avoidance direction it adopts the sequence-lift and bridge-trace method of Li's preprint, with the trace statement reproved through a decomposition of the lift into a base and fibers joined only at cut points, so that a missing bridge or an odd Berge cycle cannot be assembled across fibers; the three obstructions are then met by three hosts, a linear host from the Erdős–Rado partition theorem for nonlinearity, the lift of for a hyperedge-node with no bridge, and an Erdős–Hajnal graph of uncountable chromatic number and prescribed odd girth for an odd Berge cycle. Everything is in ZFC, with the de Bruijn–Erdős compactness theorem as the third imported input.
Standing. The claimant is Samuil Petkov, who filed the result on the site's
proof-claims page on 2026-07-15 under the forum name Sam_Petkov; the claim's
entry names the system 5.6 Sol Pro and its notes say that the proof was
completed with ChatGPT-5.6 Sol Pro, verified independently twice by Pro and
twice by Ultra, as the notes name the two checkers, and not by an expert; the
manuscript itself names GPT-5.6 Pro through ChatGPT and Aristotle for proof
development, checking and the Lean formalization. The manuscript states that
Theorem A, its classification, was first proved by Li, credits Li's preprint of
2026-06-23 as the first publicly posted complete proof, makes no priority claim
for the ingredients it reuses, and claims no informational independence: the
author began the argument before learning of Li's preprint, but the instruction
that the models work without further internet access after an initial
source-retrieval stage is, as the manuscript says, no auditable guarantee that
no model suggestion drew on outside retrieval; it presents itself as an
alternative proof whose main expository difference is a base-fiber decomposition
suited to machine checking. The manuscript and the repository's README describe
a Lean 4 formalization whose exported theorems are the two equivalences
F.IsObligatory ↔ F.isolatedReduction.Intrinsic and F.IsObligatory ↔ Constructible F.isolatedReduction; the claimant states that the development
verifies both directions of the classification including the isolated-vertex
reduction, that the word finite refers to the classified system while the
host triple systems are not assumed finite and are quantified within the
formalization's documented ambient-universe convention, and that the Lean is a
separate verification of the alternative proof, not a line-by-line formalization
of Li's manuscript. The entry file formalization/Erdos593.lean calls itself
the entry point of a machine-checked finite structural kernel and imports the
graph and triple-system modules. This corpus has not built or audited the
development or compared its definition of an obligatory system with the
uncountably chromatic hosts of the question, so the page lists no formalized
evidence. The site lists seven comments on the claim. On 2026-07-15 a commenter
pointed to Li's arXiv preprint, and the claimant replied that Li's preprint
claims the same classification by a different and in some respects stronger
route, that Pro and Ultra had found no fatal gap in it though they could not
certify it themselves, and that their own proof was narrower, independent and
more self-contained in the ingredients Problem 593 needs. On 2026-07-17 Li noted
that the preprint had been public since 2026-06-23 and could have been retrieved
by a system producing a later proof, and invited collaboration on formalizing
it; the claimant answered that they had been unaware of Li's work, that the
important arguments differ and Li's proof is more elegant and stronger, and that
the first parts of the two proofs are the same. On 2026-07-19 the claimant
announced the formalization complete and checked by Aristotle, ChatGPT and the
repository's continuous integration build. On 2026-07-20 Li reported that at the
revision of 2026-07-19 the development compiled under its pinned toolchain and
that #print axioms on both endpoint theorems gave only propext,
Classical.choice and Quot.sound, a third party's report that is not corpus
evidence, and proposed a timeline crediting Li's preprint with the first
resolution and this development with the first machine-checked proof of the
classification; the claimant replied that the claim stays up for historical
purposes, since Li's claim was first. So the claimant asserted independence in
their comment of 2026-07-15, and the manuscript revision of 2026-07-21 later
disclaimed informational independence while keeping the alternative route. The
site shows no verdict and its label is OPEN; the manuscript is not refereed and
no reviewer is recorded, so the claim stays claimed.