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Problem 808

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claims/: The 1 claim page of Problem 808, one per claimant's result; the problem's standing derives from them.


Statement. Let c,ϵ>0c,\epsilon>0 and nn be sufficiently large. If $A\subset \mathbb{N}$ has ∣A∣=n\lvert A\rvert=n and GG is any graph on AA with at least n1+cn^{1+c} edges then

max⁡(∣A+GA∣,∣A⋅GA∣)≥∣A∣1+c−ϵ,\max(\lvert A+_GA\rvert,\lvert A\cdot_G A\rvert) \geq \lvert A\rvert^{1+c-\epsilon},

where

A+GA={a+b:(a,b)∈G}A+_GA = \{ a+b : (a,b)\in G\}

and similarly for A⋅GAA\cdot_GA.

Status. Disproved. The status-defining source is Theorem 4 of Alon, Ruzsa and Solymosi [ARS20] (Publ. Mat. 64 (2020), 143--155, refereed): for every 0<c<10<c<1 there is δ>0\delta>0 such that for infinitely many nn some set of nn integers carries a graph with at least n1+c/log⁡O(1)nn^{1+c}/\log^{O(1)}n edges along which sums and products together number at most n1+c−δlog⁡O(1)nn^{1+c-\delta}\log^{O(1)}n (the paper's Ωl\Omega_l and OlO_l, loose up to powers of the logarithm, which the strict inequality in δ\delta absorbs); their Theorem 3 is the explicit case with ≫n5/3−o(1)\gg n^{5/3-o(1)} edges and max⁡(∣A+GA∣,∣A⋅GA∣)≪n4/3+o(1)\max(\lvert A+_GA\rvert,\lvert A\cdot_GA\rvert)\ll n^{4/3+o(1)}. The paper's positive result, that a graph with mm edges on nn integers has max⁡(∣A+GA∣,∣A⋅GA∣)≫m3/2n−7/4\max(\lvert A+_GA\rvert,\lvert A\cdot_GA\rvert)\gg m^{3/2}n^{-7/4}, bounds how far the failure can go. The claim page is Alon, Ruzsa and Solymosi (accepted on the refereed publication and the site's credit).

Source. erdosproblems.com/808, accessed 2026-09-04 and 2026-10-07 (label DISPROVED; no last-edited date; empty discussion thread and proof-claim tab). Cite as: T. F. Bloom, Erdős Problem #808, https://www.erdosproblems.com/808.

References.

  • [ARS20] Alon, Noga and Ruzsa, Imre and Solymosi, József, Sums, products, and ratios along the edges of a graph. Publ. Mat. 64 (2020), 143-155, doi:10.5565/publmat6412006 (Crossref record read), arXiv:1802.06405 (18 February 2018).
  • [Er77c] Erdős, Paul, Problems and results on combinatorial number theory. III. Number theory day (Proc. Conf., Rockefeller Univ., New York, 1976) (1977), 43-72.

Formalization. None: no file ErdosProblems/808.lean exists in google-deepmind/formal-conjectures (main, 2026-10-07), and the community database records the problem unformalized (copy of 2026-10-06).

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