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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. Let r^(F1,F2)\hat r(F_1,F_2) be the least number of edges of a graph GG such that every blue-red coloring of E(G)E(G) has a blue F1F_1 or a red F2F_2, and let Codd\mathcal C_{\mathrm{odd}} be the family of odd cycles. Pikhurko's Theorem 1 (p. 404) gives

r^(K1,n,K3)<n2+2 n3/2+n(n≥1),r^(K1,n,Codd)>n2+0.577 n3/2\hat r(K_{1,n},K_3)<n^2+\sqrt2\,n^{3/2}+n\quad(n\ge1), \qquad \hat r(K_{1,n},\mathcal C_{\mathrm{odd}})>n^2+0.577\,n^{3/2}

for all large nn, by an explicit construction and a greedy argument. A graph arrowing (K1,n,K3)(K_{1,n},K_3) arrows (K1,n,Codd)(K_{1,n},\mathcal C_{\mathrm{odd}}), and a graph is the union of a bipartite graph and a graph of maximum degree below nn exactly when its edges can be colored with no red odd cycle and no blue K1,nK_{1,n}; so a graph with at most (2n+12)−(n2)−1\binom{2n+1}2-\binom n2-1 edges that arrows (K1,n,K3)(K_{1,n},K_3) refutes the statement of Problem 613 at that nn, once edges are added to reach that count if needed, since a graph containing a graph that is not such a union is not one either (a decomposition restricts to subgraphs). The paper's remark on p. 405 records that the upper bound is strictly below the conjectured value for every n≥6n\ge6 and that at n=5n=5 the construction with the representation 5=2+35=2+3 has 4444 edges against the conjectured 4545; the edge count was recomputed on the problem page. The statement is therefore false for every n≥5n\ge5, and as a claim for every n≥3n\ge3 it is disproved. The cases n=3n=3 and n=4n=4 are not decided by the paper or by any source cited on the problem page. The paper is paged on the library's source card.

Depends on. Nothing in this wiki; the result rests on the cited paper alone. The elementary step from the arrowing form to the statement's splitting form is made on the problem page.

Acceptance. Refereed: O. Pikhurko, Size Ramsey numbers of stars versus 3-chromatic graphs, Combinatorica 21 (2001), no. 3, 403--412, received 28 May 1999 and published 1 July 2001 (Crossref), the date this page is named by. Reviewed: the site's curator, T. F. Bloom, records the problem as disproved by Pikhurko, with the bounds of Theorem 1 and the failure at n=5n=5, in the problem's commentary (its key [Pi01]; page last edited 1 December 2025, accessed 2026-09-18 for the problem page), and the thread's comments of October and November 2025 point to the same theorem. The n=5n=5 instance has a Lean formalization, linked above in two versions and described below; it is not listed as evidence, since nothing was built or audited in this corpus.

The Lean formalization. The file src/latest/ErdosProblems/Erdos613.lean of Boris Alexeev's repository plby/lean-proofs, linked above at its commit of 7 September 2026, for Lean and Mathlib v4.33.0, proves

lean
not_erdos_613 : ∃ (V : Type) (G : SimpleGraph V), G.edgeSet.ncard = 44 ∧
  ∀ (color : Sym2 V → Fin 2),
    Erdos613.hasMonoStar G color 0 5 ∨ Erdos613.hasMonoTriangle G color 1

that is, a graph with 4444 edges every 22-coloring of whose edges has a monochromatic K1,5K_{1,5} in the first color or a monochromatic triangle in the second: the arrowing form of the n=5n=5 counterexample above, with 44=(112)−(52)−144=\binom{11}2-\binom52-1. The file names Pikhurko as informal author and Tao as formal author, so it is a formalization of this claim's n=5n=5 instance and not an independent result. Its first version is the file analysis/Analysis/Misc/erdos_613.lean of the repository teorth/analysis, linked above at the commit of 4 November 2025 that added it: 1,125 lines, closing with theorem main : Pikhurko_n5_statement, the same 4444-edge arrowing statement, with no author header; the Alexeev file's header links it. It was announced in the site's thread the same day as a formalization of Pikhurko's counterexample written, by the comment's own account, with AI coding assistance; the comment names no system. The step from the arrowing form to the statement's splitting form, that such a graph is not the union of a bipartite graph and a graph of maximum degree below 55, is the elementary coloring argument on the problem page and is not in the file; the cases n≥6n\ge6 are not formalized. At the linked commit the Alexeev file has 1,190 lines, no sorry, and a closing comment recording #print axioms as propext, choice and Quot.sound. The formal-conjectures statement of the problem names the file in a formal_proof attribute, and the community database lists the problem as disproved (Lean) as of its last update, dated 4 November 2025. Nothing was built or kernel-checked in this corpus and no statement-fidelity review exists, so no formalized evidence is listed.

Read depth. The conjectures, Theorem 1 and the p. 405 remarks (pp. 403--405 and 412) were read at claims-checked depth, and the edge count 4444 was recomputed from the construction; the verification of the construction (p. 405) and the proof of the lower bound (Section 3) were not checked. Nothing is independently reviewed in this corpus.