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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. Every non-averaging A⊆{1,…,N}A\subseteq\{1,\ldots,N\} has ∣A∣≤N1/4+o(1)|A|\le N^{1/4+o(1)}, and in particular the largest such set has size N1/4+o(1)N^{1/4+o(1)} (Theorem 1, p. 2 of arXiv v2). In the notation of Problem 186 this is F(N)≤N1/4+o(1)F(N)\le N^{1/4+o(1)} and, with Bosznay's lower bound, F(N)=N1/4+o(1)F(N)=N^{1/4+o(1)}: the order of growth the problem asks for is determined up to the o(1)o(1) in the exponent, which is what the site's SOLVED label records. H. T. Pham and D. Zakharov, Sharp bound for the Erdős--Straus non-averaging set problem, Geom. Funct. Anal. 35 (2025), no. 6, 1712--1738, arXiv:2410.14624 (v1 18 October 2024, v2 10 September 2025), cited as [PhZa24] on the problem page. Library home pham_2024_sharp_bound_erdos_straus_non_averaging; result page Theorem 1. The paper's non-averaging condition, no element the average of a nonempty subset not containing it, is the problem's, since a one-element subset averages to itself. The route, as the introduction describes it: the subset-sums structure theorem of Conlon, Fox and Pham places a large set, after removing few elements, in a generalized arithmetic progression of bounded dimension whose multiple is filled by the subset sums, and a structural result on point sets in nearly convex position turns the non-averaging condition into a convexity constraint. The theorem improves the bound N2−1+o(1)N^{\sqrt2-1+o(1)} of Conlon, Fox and Pham, the first polynomial improvement on the Erdős--Sárközy bound (Nlog⁡N)1/2(N\log N)^{1/2}. What remains open is recorded on the problem page: the o(1)o(1), any constant, and the sequence F(N)F(N) beyond the OEIS terms.

Depends on. Bosznay's lower bound F(N)≫N1/4F(N)\gg N^{1/4}, which the paper recalls on p. 1 as the best known lower bound and which the "in particular" clause of Theorem 1 consumes; the upper bound itself rests on the literature the paper cites, not on a page of this wiki.

Acceptance. Refereed: the paper appeared in Geometric and Functional Analysis, published online 3 December 2025 (per its Crossref record, as the problem page records). Reviewed: the site's curator, Thomas Bloom, credits the upper bound to Pham and Zakharov in the problem page's commentary and labels the problem SOLVED (page last edited 8 April 2026); that is documented acceptance outside this project.

Read depth. The library card checks the definition and Theorem 1; the proof (Sections 2--4) was not read. Nothing here rests on a review by this project.