Research notes on every problem, and a library of the papers behind them. Built from the open erdos repository.
Updated
E. F. Ecklund, Jr. proved that for positive integers with the coefficient has a prime divisor
with the single exception (On prime divisors of the binomial coefficient, Pacific J. Math. 29 (1969), no. 2, 267--270; received 1968-07-08, published 1969-05-01 by the publisher's record). For the maximum is , and carries the bound across the midpoint, so every with has a prime divisor except , which is the corrected Statement of Problem 384. The source's theorem page gives a complete rewritten proof with the symmetry transfer to this problem, and the full-proof review filed with the source accepted the five rewritten components relative to the quoted Rosser--Schoenfeld estimates and the Faulkner implication.
The acceptance evidence is the refereed publication in the Pacific Journal of
Mathematics and the site's curator, Thomas Bloom, who marks Problem 384 proved
and credits Ecklund's paper for the proof; the linked formal-conjectures
statement reads the problem with Ecklund's bound. Guy's collection (section
B33) states the theorem in the same non-strict form. The curator's label
carries a Lean qualification, which links no file and mirrors the community
database's formal status Lean from 24 August 2026; the Lean development
matching that date is Alexeev's refutation of the strict wording. The
formal-conjectures statement file FormalConjectures/ErdosProblems/384.lean,
added on 22 September 2026 and linked by the site as the formalized statement,
states the non-strict theorem with 2 * p ≤ n and leaves it unproved
(sorry), and no kernel-checked proof of Ecklund's theorem is recorded here
or linked there.