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Daryxx: the Grechuk variant of Erdős Problem 10 in Lean 4

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daryxx_2026_erdos_problem_10_grechuk_partial_result: Records the gist's URL, revision, files and sizes, holds the write-up's text with its tool disclosure omitted, and identifies the Lean file by its size and final theorem only.


Daryxx, "Erdős Problem 10 — Grechuk partial result and Lean 4 formalisation", GitHub gist e112c74cc648b08a420b0959315cf65f, revision 4b347897, created 2026-08-07T10:33:08Z: a Markdown write-up (ERDOSPROBLEMS_PARTIAL_PROOF.md) and a 2,289-line Lean 4 file (Main.lean). The folder holds no folder-name PDF: the source is a gist, so the folder-name Markdown file is the source record, which records the URL, the two files' sizes and the write-up's text (the library's no-PDF shape); the Lean file is identified there by its size and final theorem and is not held.

Bears on. Problem 10: the Grechuk variant in the site's remark, infinitely many even integers outside prime plus at most three powers of 22, a partial result that leaves the question open and shows any answering kk is at least 44.

Read status. Claims checked: the write-up's statement and argument were read in full and followed here; the Lean file's final theorem, its target type and its closing exact were read as text with a token scan, and the file was not built. The site's kernel acceptance is the site's record, read on its page, not replayed here. Nothing here is independently reviewed.

Overview

Let SkS_k be the set of natural numbers that are a prime plus at most kk powers of 22, the exponent 00 and repeated exponents allowed; this is the formal-conjectures definition Erdos10.sumPrimeAndTwoPows k. The result is that the even numbers outside S3S_3 form an infinite set, the exact Lean statement Set.Infinite ({n : ℕ | Even n} \ Erdos10.sumPrimeAndTwoPows 3), which is the catalog's Erdos10.erdos_10.variants.grechuk. The write-up says in its first paragraph that this does not resolve the main question, whether one fixed number of powers of 22 suffices for every sufficiently large integer.

The argument is a parity bridge from Crocker's construction ([[additive_bases/crocker_1971_sum_prime_two_powers_two/theorem_i|Crocker 1971, Theorem I]]). That construction gives infinitely many distinct odd t>15t>15 with t≡15(mod16)t\equiv15\pmod{16} and t∉S2t\notin S_2; the write-up notes that Crocker's exclusions use positive exponents only, and that the construction still rules out representations using 202^0 (by the compositeness of tt and the exclusions with one positive power) and those with a repeated exponent (since 2a+2a=2a+12^a+2^a=2^{a+1}). For each such tt put N=t+1N=t+1, which is even. If N∈S3N\in S_3 through a representation containing 20=12^0=1, removing that term puts tt in S2S_2. Otherwise every power-of-two term is even, so the prime is 22 and t−1=N−2t-1=N-2 is a sum of at most three powers of 22; but t−1≡14(mod16)t-1\equiv14\pmod{16}, and a residue check shows such a sum must be exactly 2+4+82+4+8, contradicting t>15t>15. The map t↦t+1t\mapsto t+1 is injective, so the exceptions are infinite.

The Lean file bundles several namespaces: a parity and residue interface (Erdos10Parity), the Fermat-number product and its arithmetic (CrockerFermatProduct), a table of 2828 residue classes on the exponent with their moduli and exact orders of 22 (CrockerFixedDataPrimefree.rows, orders checked by decide and a verified table), a Chinese-remainder assembly of the family (CrockerCRTAssembly.family k, one integer per layer k+11k+11), and the boundary lemma that turns "not a prime plus one positive power" and "not a prime plus two unequal positive powers", with t≡15(mod16)t\equiv15\pmod{16} and tt not prime, into t∉S2t\notin S_2. Its theorems family_mod_sixteen, family_gt_fifteen, family_not_S2 and family_strictMono feed CrockerCRTAssembly.erdos10_grechuk, and theorem target closes by exact against it. The header says the file was generated from a hash-locked modular proof; the bundled pieces carry their own digests in comments.

Standing

  • Conjectures.io record ce95887b-8b61-4a89-9069-9131a58906e0, task fc-379fc029-variants-grechuk-e26c885566-formalized-v1, catalog commit 379fc0298dc146df549e7061c3ede0353a5bb51f: the site's Lean kernel accepted the proof on 6 August 2026 (11:24:37 UTC per the site's decision text), with the same verification checklist as the accepted record (static scan clean, statement unchanged, axioms inside propext, Quot.sound and Classical.choice, second kernel not run); the review decision is DUPLICATE_OF_EARLIER_SUBMISSION, "one reward is paid per stable theorem target" under the site's policy v1, and no reward was paid. The status-defining acceptance of the variant is the earlier record 244ff2d0-399d-4e37-a307-4ff6f3cb3493 (kernel accepted 05:12:22 UTC, approved and certified 6 August 2026, bounty paid), credited by the site to a different solver and recorded with its provenance on Problem 10. The write-up describes this file as independently developed; that is the source's own statement, not a finding checked here.
  • formal-conjectures marks erdos_10.variants.grechuk research solved since commit 62c70dc6 (2026-09-14, PR #5998), citing this gist as its formal_proof; this is catalog agreement with the variant, not with the question, which the catalog keeps research open.
  • erdosproblems.com lists one partial proof claim for Problem 10, submitted 2026-08-07 10:33:54, linking this gist as both its proof and its formalization; the claim's summary says it is not a solution of the main question, and the site records no acceptance.