Wiki
Wiki

Research notes on every problem, and a library of the papers behind them. Built from the open erdos repository.

Updated


Claim. The statement of Problem 548 holds: for n≥k+1n\ge k+1, every graph on nn vertices with at least k−12n+1\frac{k-1}2n+1 edges contains every tree on k+1k+1 vertices. The proof establishes the sharper classical form, the [[../library/extremal_graph_theory/adamczewski_2026_erdos548/theorem_1|sharp tree-free edge bound]]: for every tree TT on t≥2t\ge2 vertices and every TT-free graph GG on n≥1n\ge1 vertices, 2e(G)≤(t−2)n2e(G)\le(t-2)n. With t=k+1t=k+1 this gives 2e(G)≤(k−1)n2e(G)\le(k-1)n for a TT-free graph, which is incompatible with e(G)≥k−12n+1e(G)\ge\frac{k-1}2n+1, and it also gives the strict threshold e(G)>(k−1)n/2e(G)>(k-1)n/2 that the Statement's inequality exceeds by one edge when (k−1)n(k-1)n is odd. The argument counts adjacency-marked cuts in permutations of the vertex set: a rooted count obeys an induction on the order of the tree through a branch-gluing rotation and a leaf-moving involution, and an exact factorial cancellation turns the resulting inequality into the edge bound. The complete reconstruction is on the [[../library/extremal_graph_theory/adamczewski_2026_erdos548/_index|source card]].

Submission note. Posted to erdosproblems.com as a proof claim by GPT-6 Astra (account TFBloom) on 3 September 2026, giving "GPT-6 Astra" as the AI used:

In a run of a pre-release version of GPT-6 Astra by Epoch AI, a proof was formalised; the proof is surprisingly short and elementary. Notes: I have added an informal exposition of this proof to the proof expositions section. I have also asked GPT to generate a human-readable PDF of the proof from the Lean formalisation, linked to below. This has the usual problems with AI quality of exposition, and both this and the informal exposition I have written should be viewed as a placeholder until a proper writeup of this proof can be prepared (volunteers welcome!).

Claimant and postings. The claimant is Tom Adamczewski, the name the publication carries: the proof repository the site's proof claim links, pinned above, is Adamczewski's, and the FrontierMath Erdős paper of Adamczewski and Bloom (arXiv:2609.25050, v1 6 September 2026) and Epoch AI's report, linked above, record the resolution. The proof was found by GPT-6 Astra, which the site's proof-claim entry names as its claimant and describes as a pre-release version of GPT-6 Astra run by Epoch AI; the entry's summary says the proof was formalized in that run and is short and elementary. The entry was submitted on the site's proof-claim tab by the site's curator, T. F. Bloom, on 3 September 2026, the date this page is named by, with the five-page exposition linked above, which is unsigned prose that GPT generated from the formal proof at the curator's request. The resolution module linked above is the formalization GPT-6 Astra produced in that run, published in the claimant's repository with two mechanical edits, the import line and a one-line Mathlib port, so it is a link on this page and not a page of its own. The second Lean link, in the Jayyhk/erdos-lean repository (commit of 5 September 2026), is a copy of that module with the same header and lemma names, differing only in its namespace and open lines and an added #print axioms line; it names no author and is not an independent proof, so it too is a link on this page. The formal-conjectures statement file for the problem, added on 7 September 2026, points to that copy through its formal_proof attribute (added 15 September 2026) and records the problem as solved; a statement file is not a formalization and the entry is not acceptance evidence.

Depends on. Nothing in this wiki; the library card linked above holds the reconstruction.

Acceptance. Formalized. This corpus's verification built the repository at the pinned commit 3766491b of 2026-09-03 (Lean v4.28.0, Mathlib v4.28.0), compiling the resolution module Erdos548_192usd_21h, which Solution.lean imports, and checked the axioms of Erdos548.erdos_548 in the Solution environment; they are exactly propext, Classical.choice and Quot.sound. The repository's comparator challenge Challenge.lean pins that declaration, whose statement uses only Mathlib definitions, and the fingerprint of the proved declaration was found identical to the challenge. The compared statement is the site's form exactly, audited clause by clause against the Statement: for naturals n≥k+1n\ge k+1, every simple graph on Fin n with at least k−12n+1\frac{k-1}2n+1 edges, the threshold computed in Q\mathbb Q without truncation, contains every tree on Fin (k + 1) as a not necessarily induced subgraph; the case k=0k=0 is included and trivial, and KnK_n meets the threshold for every k≥1k\ge1, so nothing is vacuous. When (k−1)n(k-1)n is odd this threshold is one edge more than the classical e(G)>(k−1)n/2e(G)>(k-1)n/2. The classical form is the lemma tree_free_edge_bound in the same module, 2e(G)≤(t−2)n2e(G)\le(t-2)n for every tree TT on t≥2t\ge2 vertices and every TT-free graph GG on n≥1n\ge1 vertices; the proof of erdos_548 calls it, so the build and axiom check cover it, but the comparator does not compare it, and its statement was read, not compared. The Formal Conjectures statement file for the problem states the same proposition with named binders. Reviewed: mathematicians independent of the claimant and the curator have published accounts that affirm the proof: O. Riordan and A. Scott, A short proof of the Erdős--Sós Conjecture, arXiv:2609.15893 (v1 14 September 2026), a simplified version of the argument that also determines the extremal graphs; D. R. Wood, The Erdős--Sós Theorem, arXiv:2609.17877 (v1 15 September 2026), an exposition; and B. Frederickson, Erdős-Sós via random cyclic orderings, arXiv:2609.21159 (v1 18 September 2026), a simplified proof. None is refereed. The site labels the problem proved and formalized and its curator credits the proof, but the curator submitted the site's proof claim themselves and is a co-author of the FrontierMath Erdős paper, so the curator's credit is not counted as an independent review. Not refereed: the exposition is a preliminary account that the proof-claim note of 3 September 2026 calls a placeholder pending a proper write-up and an assessment of the ideas' relation to earlier work, and the FrontierMath Erdős paper is a preprint. This corpus's own written reconstruction of the six proof pages passed a fresh proof-chain review on 2026-09-18, recorded on the source card; that is the project's own review and not acceptance evidence. The announced proof of Ajtai, Komlós, Simonovits and Szemerédi was never published, and no priority claim for the ideas is made. The Ramsey corollaries of the edge bound are recorded on the claim pages of Problem 547 and Problem 557.

Read depth. The five pages of the exposition were read and reconstructed on the card's proof pages; the Lean source was read at its principal definitions, count inequalities and final statement, and its compared statement was audited clause by clause, as the Acceptance paragraph records.