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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. A lower bound for the h(n)h(n) of Problem 860 of about 3n3n, credited to Erdős and Selfridge. The sources state it in three forms.

  • Erdős and Pomerance, Matching the natural numbers up to nn with distinct multiples in another interval, Indag. Math. (Proc.) 83 (1980), Section 6, display (19) (p. 159): Erdős and Selfridge "can show, using Brun's method", that lim sup⁡n→∞hP(n)/n≥3\limsup_{n\to\infty}h_{\mathcal P}(n)/n\ge3, where hP(n)h_{\mathcal P}(n) is this problem's h(n)h(n) less one. The paper adds (p. 160) that the bound comes from their construction, for every kk, of a set of primes p1<⋯<pk2p_1<\cdots<p_{k^2} with only 2k2k multiples in some interval of length (3−o(1))pk2(3-o(1))p_{k^2}.
  • Guy, Unsolved problems in number theory, third edition (2004), Section B32 (p. 133): (3−ϵ)n≤f(n)(3-\epsilon)n\le f(n) for large nn, where f(n)f(n) is the least length for which every interval [m+1,m+f(n)][m+1,m+f(n)] holds the system, again this problem's h(n)h(n) less one.
  • The site's commentary: h(n)>(3−o(1))nh(n)>(3-o(1))n.

The forms differ: display (19) is a limsup statement, weaker than the bound for all large nn that Guy and the site give. The sources are compiled at Erdős and Pomerance (1980) and Guy (2004).

Covers. The lower bound h(n)≥(3−o(1))nh(n)\ge(3-o(1))n in the forms above. The order of magnitude of h(n)h(n) stays open, and the bound is superseded by Ruzsa's h(n)/n→∞h(n)/n\to\infty.

Standing. Erdős and Pomerance report the result and the construction it rests on, and Guy repeats it; no journal paper on record prints the proof. The page is dated by Erdős and Pomerance's paper, the earliest publication on record that carries the result. The claim stays claimed.

Depends on. Nothing on this wiki.