Research notes on every problem, and a library of the papers behind them. Built from the open erdos repository.
Updated
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 there are intervals
of two or three consecutive integers, pairwise
separated by at least one integer (), whose reciprocals sum to
exactly . Since such intervals are distinct, non-overlapping and
non-adjacent with , 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
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 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 , there exist intervals with , , and . Adapting Conlon et al.’s absorption method, Bourgain–Garaev yields suitable pairs with and -powersmooth. Sparse inverse coverage cancels each denominator prime power using at most pairs. Auxiliary -powersmooth pairs make each stage contribute exactly intervals, at cost . Thus is predetermined. Starting with main pairs and protected pairs, Liu–Sawhney absorbs the final deficit through pair-to-triple extensions, giving exactly 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.