Wiki
Wiki

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

Updated


Claim. Let S⊆NS\subseteq\mathbb N be infinite and suppose ∑n∈Sn/2n\sum_{n\in S}n/2^n is rational with denominator QQ. Then there is a constant cQ>0c_Q>0, depending only on QQ, such that every sufficiently large dyadic block (X,2X](X,2X] contains at least cQXc_QX elements of SS. Consequently, for every increasing sequence a1<a2<⋯a_1<a_2<\cdots of positive integers with an/n→∞a_n/n\to\infty the series ∑nan/2an\sum_n a_n/2^{a_n} is irrational, since such a sequence has o(X)o(X) terms in every block (X,2X](X,2X]: the question of Problem 260 has the answer yes. The result is Theorem 2.1 and Corollary 2.2 of the paper on the card wang_2026_positive_dyadic_density_rational_weighted_binary, arXiv:2606.24972 (the preprint link). The arXiv record lists four versions: v1 (2026-06-23), "Positive dyadic density for rational weighted binary expansions", by Han Wang and Jose Maria Grau Ribas; v2 and v3 (2026-07-15 and 2026-07-17) under the same title with Wang as sole author; and v4 (2026-08-24), retitled "Sparse Polynomial-Weighted Expansions", which generalizes the theorem to rational polynomial weights p(n)p(n) and integer bases b≥2b\ge2. The page is named by the first posting, v1, whose authors are Wang and Grau Ribas; the later versions, the site's proof claim and the Lean development are Wang's alone. The card digests the dyadic version of v1, whose proof Wang later wrote contained errors that v2 corrects, and the later versions are recorded by their arXiv listings. Erdős's 1981 theorem, the accepted partial claim on its own page, is the earlier special case under the stronger hypothesis an+1−an→∞a_{n+1}-a_n\to\infty that the site's remarks record.

Submission note. Posted to erdosproblems.com as a proof claim by Han Wang (account HanWang) on 17 July 2026, giving "using GPT-5.5 for auditing, language editing, restructuring, and assistance with parts of the Lean development" as the AI used:

The paper proves that if the sum of n / 2^n over an infinite set S is rational, then S must contain a fixed positive proportion of the integers in every large interval from X to 2X. Erdős Problem 260 follows because the condition a_n / n -> infinity makes the set {a_n} too sparse for this to happen. The proof converts rationality into strong restrictions on the tails of the series. If one of these intervals were sparse, many repeated patterns would appear among the gaps in S. Those repetitions force the associated tail values into a rigid structure, making them too few to account for the amount of sparsity assumed. This contradiction gives the result.

Posted to the site's forum by Han Wang on 16 July 2026:

An update to my earlier comment: the first version of our preprint contained errors, which have now been corrected. The revised manuscript has been substantially streamlined to 30 pages. The updated version is available on arXiv. We have also completed a full, unconditional Lean 4/mathlib formalization of the exact Erdős 260 statement. #print axioms reports only Lean’s three standard foundational axioms: propext, Classical.choice, and Quot.sound. The formalization is available at https://github.com/Hanziwww/erdos260

Argument. As the paper and the author's thread comments describe it: a rational value forces an integral carry recurrence on the tails of the binary expansion, which bounds every gap of SS near xx by log⁡2x+OQ(1)\log_2x+O_Q(1); a sparse dyadic block forces repeated gap patterns, which lock the carry states onto a rigid affine structure; counting the possible carry states then gives an upper bound on an integrated excess mass that contradicts a pressure lower bound derived from the assumed sparsity. The author notes in the thread (2026-07-18) that the density theorem does not decide whether a rational sum can have lim sup⁡(an+1−an)=∞\limsup(a_{n+1}-a_n)=\infty, the question Erdős and Graham left open, and that the author's gap bound and a conditional construction of Borwein and Loring meet at the logarithmic scale.

Standing. Claimed. The paper is a preprint with no journal record on its arXiv page as of 2026-10-07; the site's label is OPEN (page last edited 2026-02-01), and the three thread comments on the claim discuss the remaining limsup question rather than the proof. Wang submitted the claim to the proof-claims thread on 2026-07-17 (the first discussion link), crediting GPT-5.5 for auditing, language editing, restructuring and parts of the Lean development. The formal-conjectures catalog tagged its statement erdos_260 as research solved with answer(True) on 2026-09-21 (the record link, pinned to that commit), citing the paper and the Lean file below; the catalog links a formal proof and does not referee it. The problem's discussion thread holds an audit of v1 that the user Tomodovodoo posted on 2026-07-08, made with GPT-5.5 Pro. It found that Lemma B.6 (dyadic excess-bin domination) supports narrower bin ranges than Theorems 6.1 and 6.4 use, so the route from Lemma B.6 through Definition 4.5 and Theorems 6.1 and 6.4 to Theorem 2.1 is not established. On 2026-07-11 Tomodovodoo reported that a second attempt, with GPT-5.6 Sol Pro, did not complete the argument. On 2026-07-16 Wang wrote in the thread (the second discussion link) that the first version contained errors, since corrected in the revised version (v2, 2026-07-15), and announced the Lean development described below. No refereed publication, named review or documented acceptance beyond the catalog's tag was found, so the claim lists no evidence.

Formalization. Wang's repository (the first formalization link, pinned to its last commit of 2026-08-23) states that it is a complete Lean 4 and Mathlib development of the paper's dyadic argument at v2, pinned to Lean and Mathlib v4.32.0, with all 38 labeled results proved, no sorry, admit, mathematical axiom or opaque stand-in, a blueprint mapping the paper's 39 labels to declarations, and a public endpoint Erdos260.erdos_260 whose type is exactly the catalog statement's right-hand side (integer-valued strictly increasing sequence, an/n→∞a_n/n\to\infty, a supplied HasSum, an Irrational conclusion) without depending on the catalog's package; it credits GPT-5.6 for the formalization and also holds a separate polynomial-window development following an unpublished generalization manuscript. The second formalization link is the endpoint file at the commit of 2026-07-16 that the catalog cites. This corpus has not built the development, printed its axioms or audited its definitions, so the formalization is a link, not a warrant.

Depends on. Nothing in this wiki.