Wiki
Wiki

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

Updated


Claim. g(n)≍n1/2g(n)\asymp n^{1/2}. Conlon, Fox and Sudakov treat the Erdős–Hajnal set-mapping function p(m,k,l)p(m,k,l), the largest pp such that every mapping ff from the kk-subsets of an mm-set to its ll-subsets with f(X)f(X) disjoint from XX admits a pp-set PP with f(X)f(X) disjoint from PP for every kk-subset XX of PP; the problem's g(n)g(n) is p(n,2,1)p(n,2,1). Section 2 of Short proofs of some extremal results II constructs, for m=nkm=n^k, a mapping with l=k!l=k! and no independent set larger than k2n=k2m1/kk^2n=k^2m^{1/k} (Theorem 2.1), then modifies the construction to l=(k−1)!l=(k-1)!, and states that together with Spencer's lower bound this gives p(m,k,(k−1)!)=Θ(m1/k)p(m,k,(k-1)!)=\Theta(m^{1/k}) with constants depending only on kk. For k=2k=2 the modified construction maps pairs to single points, so g(n)≪n1/2g(n)\ll n^{1/2}, and with Spencer's g(n)≫n1/2g(n)\gg n^{1/2} the order of g(n)g(n) is n1/2n^{1/2}. This is the question as asked, an estimate of g(n)g(n); the asymptotic constant is not determined. The posers' earlier upper bound, Erdős and Hajnal's g(n)≪(nlog⁡n)1/2g(n)\ll(n\log n)^{1/2} from On the structure of set-mappings, loses a logarithm. The paper also removes a logarithm from Caro's related function (Theorem 2.2), which the problem does not ask about.

Earlier proof of the same bound. The paper itself records, in the same section, that after it was written the authors learned that the case l=(k−1)!=1l=(k-1)!=1, k=2k=2, which is exactly g(n)≪n1/2g(n)\ll n^{1/2}, had been solved independently much earlier by Füredi, Theorem 2.3 of Maximal independent subsets in Steiner systems and in planar sets (SIAM J. Discrete Math. 4 (1991), 196–199), which proves (23/9)n<g(n)<2n(2\sqrt3/9)\sqrt n<g(n)<2\sqrt n by a block construction. The site credits Conlon, Fox and Sudakov alone; Füredi's earlier proof has its own accepted claim page, Füredi 1991.

Depends on. Spencer's lower bound supplies g(n)≫n1/2g(n)\gg n^{1/2}, the lower half of the estimate, which the paper cites and does not reprove.

Acceptance. Refereed: the paper appeared in J. Combin. Theory Ser. B 121 (2016), 173–196, after its first posting as arXiv:1507.00547 on 2015-07-02. Reviewed: Thomas Bloom, the site's curator, labels the problem solved and credits Conlon, Fox and Sudakov with the upper bound g(n)≪n1/2g(n)\ll n^{1/2} beside Spencer's lower bound.

Formalization. The Lean file among the links, in Boris Alexeev's repository lean-proofs, declares itself a formalization of a solution to Problem 1025, naming Conlon, Fox and Sudakov as its informal authors and Codex and GPT-5.6 Sol as its formal authors. Its docstring says that the lower bound is the three-uniform case of Spencer's deletion argument and the upper bound the square-grid construction of Conlon, Fox and Sudakov specialized to maps from pairs to points, and its final theorem erdos_1025 states that g(n)g(n) is Θ(n)\Theta(\sqrt n) for the function gg the file defines, followed by a #print axioms command whose output the file does not record. The link is pinned to the commit at which the formal-conjectures statement file for the problem cites it; the file was added to the repository on 2026-08-17. This corpus has not built the file, so the formalization is a link and not formalized evidence, and the statement file is not a formalization.

A second Lean development among the links, Erdos1025 released by IIIS Lean at its commit of 15 September 2026, is the formalization the community database cites for the problem. Its README says that it formalizes the known square-root lower and upper bounds, naming Section 2 of this paper as the source of the upper bound (Erdos1025.upper_bound) and Spencer's three-uniform method, through Rödl, Sales and Zhao's account, for the lower bound (Erdos1025.lower_bound), establishing the Θ(n)\Theta(\sqrt n) scale and no sharp constant; it says that the development was produced with AI assistance through Lean Constellation (Codex and, where used, Grok), that IIIS Lean is responsible for the packaging and verification, and that no independent expert audit is claimed. The corpus has not built it either, so it is a link and not formalized evidence.