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If is a finite set and then let
For does the multiset (together with the size of ) uniquely determine the set ?
If is a finite set and then let
For does the multiset (together with the size of ) uniquely determine the set , provided is sufficiently large in terms of ?
Source: erdosproblems.com/494
An accepted solution exists. The statement is true.
The site labels the problem PROVED and credits Gordon, Fraenkel and Straus with uniqueness for every once is sufficiently large; the corrected Statement is Bloom's reading, so the label describes it. The theorem of Section 4 of [GFS62] (Pacific J. Math. 12 (1962), 187--196, refereed) settles it: for every , all but finitely many sizes admit no two distinct sets with the same multiset . Selfridge and Straus [SeSt58] settle for other than and , for , and every when has a prime factor exceeding . The claim pages are Gordon, Fraenkel and Straus (an accepted full claim, on the refereed publication and the site's credit) and Selfridge and Straus (an accepted partial claim).
The site's wording sets no range for , and as printed the
answer is no for every : for the multiset is empty and for
it is the single sum of , so distinct sets of those sizes share it
(Kruyt's observation, recorded in the site's commentary); for a set
with sum and its negative share , since each -sum of the negative
is minus a -sum of , which is the complementary -sum (Tao's
observation, in the commentary and in Tao's forum comment of 30 August 2025,
which says the case "needs to be ruled out"; Theorem 3 of [SeSt58], p. 850,
shows is the only size above at which a nontrivial transformation
preserves the -fold sums); for the sizes and are reported
as further exceptions (see Formulation). Bloom reads the problem with a size
condition. The commentary records the two failures as remarks on the wording,
says "Presumably some condition like ' sufficiently large' is intended",
and labels the problem PROVED on the theorem of Gordon, Fraenkel and Straus
[GFS62] that "for all , the multiset uniquely determines provided
is sufficiently large", added on 14 October 2025 after msellke's forum
comment of 13 October 2025 supplied the reference. The corrected Statement
adopts that reading in Bloom's words, adding "provided is sufficiently
large in terms of " and changing nothing else. It is the conjecture Gordon,
Fraenkel and Straus attribute to Selfridge and Straus [GFS62, §1, p. 187], that
for one has "for all but a finite number of ", which for
fixed says the same thing. Under the site's wording the answer is no, by the
small sizes above; under Bloom's reading it is yes, by the theorem of Section 4
of [GFS62], with the explicit ranges , other than and ,
and , , from [SeSt58]. The missing range is older than the site:
Erdős's report of the problem ([Er61], item I.33, p. 238) states the
Selfridge--Straus conjecture for with no size condition (and with products
in place of sums; see Formulation), while Selfridge and Straus ask "To what
extent is determined by " ([SeSt58], §1, p. 847) and call
the exceptional pairs "in a certain sense quite rare" (p. 854). Results
on the site's wording are credited here and do not bear on the standing: Kruyt's
failure at , Tao's at , Theorem 3 of [SeSt58], and the Lean
development Erdos494.lean in Boris Alexeev's repository (added 2026-08-16;
Codex and GPT-5.6 Sol as formal authors; file at a pinned
commit),
whose only theorem, card_eq_2k, proves the failure at for every
and whose own section heading reads "The literal problem has a negative answer".
The theorem answers the site's wording, not the corrected
Statement, which asks only about sufficiently large ; it presents itself as
a solution of Problem 494 and so has a
claim page (Alexeev, 2026),
which is rejected and does not count toward the standing. The page's standing
judges the corrected Statement.