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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. Johan Land's full proof claim, submitted to the site's proof-claim tab on 4 September 2026, asserts a quantitative form of the restricted statement: for every sufficiently large kk there are intervals Ii=[ai,bi]⊆[1,20k]I_i=[a_i,b_i]\subseteq[1,20k] of two or three consecutive integers, pairwise separated by at least one integer (bi+1<ai+1b_i+1<a_{i+1}), whose reciprocals sum to exactly 11. Since such intervals are distinct, non-overlapping and non-adjacent with ∣Ii∣≥2|I_i|\ge2, this would answer the problem affirmatively. The claim's own account of its method: an absorption argument adapted from one the claimant attributes to Conlon and coauthors, with the pairs (qm,qm+1)(qm,qm+1) supplied by a Bourgain–Garaev estimate and the prime powers of the denominators cancelled by sparse inverse coverage; auxiliary powersmooth pairs fix the number of intervals contributed at each stage; a protected core and a pair-to-triple extension in the manner of Liu and Sawhney absorb the final deficit so that exactly kk intervals result. The claim's tab names the AI systems Astra, Fabel-5.1 and Gemini-Flash-3.8, working in a Lean repository built for proof search, as its tools; the claimant is the human submitter. The manuscript is the PDF in the claimant's repository, linked at the repository's head of 13 September 2026; the claim's thread comment of 4 September 2026 adds the repository as the formalization, says that the Bourgain–Garaev input was replaced by a modification of the proof, and says that the development compiles with no sorry and no axioms beyond propext, Classical.choice and Quot.sound. That is the claimant's statement; no build or review of the repository is recorded, so it gives no formalized evidence.

Submission note. Posted to erdosproblems.com as a proof claim by Johan Land (account JohanLand) on 4 September 2026, giving "Astra, Fabel 5.1, Gemini-Flash-3.8" as the AI used:

Astra/Fabel-5.1/Gemini-Flash-3.8 working inside a specialized ~3m lean repo for fast proof search. For all sufficiently large kk, there exist intervals Ii=[ai,bi]⊆[1,20k]I_i=[a_i,b_i]\subseteq[1,20k] with ∣Ii∣∈{2,3}|I_i|\in\{2,3\}, bi+1<ai+1b_i+1<a_{i+1}, and ∑i∑n∈Ii1/n=1\sum_i\sum_{n\in I_i}1/n=1. Adapting Conlon et al.’s absorption method, Bourgain–Garaev yields q1/10−o(1)q^{1/10-o(1)} suitable pairs (qm,qm+1)(qm,qm+1) with 4∣qm4\mid qm and qm+1qm+1 (q/2)(q/2)-powersmooth. Sparse inverse coverage cancels each denominator prime power qq using at most q1/20q^{1/20} pairs. Auxiliary (q/2)(q/2)-powersmooth pairs make each stage contribute exactly sq=⌊q1/20⌋s_q=\lfloor q^{1/20}\rfloor intervals, at cost O(q−21/20)O(q^{-21/20}). Thus CH=∑L<q≤HsqC_H=\sum_{L<q\le H}s_q is predetermined. Starting with k−R−CHk-R-C_H main pairs and RR protected pairs, Liu–Sawhney absorbs the final deficit j/Kj/K through pair-to-triple extensions, giving exactly kk intervals. Spacing ensures nonadjacency throughout. Formalization coming...

Standing. Claimed. The site's label is OPEN (page last edited 22 September 2025; accessed 2026-10-07) and the tab carries its standing notice that listing a claim implies no examination; no curator, referee or named mathematician has accepted the proof, and no refereed or arXiv version exists. The thread under the claim holds a priority statement by the author of the second claim, who writes that their own manuscript was complete in mid-August 2026, and an exchange in which the two authors compare ingredients and propose to write a joint account; a later comment under the third claim says that its author had proposed a shorter solution to both and intends a short paper, a remark without a manuscript, which has no page of its own.