Wiki
Wiki

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

Updated


Claim. Assuming the continuum hypothesis, there is a graph GG whose vertex set is ordered in type ω12\omega_1^2 such that GG contains no triangle and no complete bipartite graph Kℵ0,ℵ0K_{\aleph_0,\aleph_0}, and no set of vertices of order type ω12\omega_1^2 is independent in GG (the abstract, in the corpus's words). Coloring a pair of vertices red when it is an edge of GG and blue otherwise gives a 22-coloring of [ω12]2[\omega_1^2]^2 with no red triangle and no blue set of type ω12\omega_1^2, that is,

ω12↛(ω12,3)2.\omega_1^2\not\to(\omega_1^2,3)^2 .

So the relation of Problem 1169 holds in every model of CH, and ZFC does not refute it, which is what the site's label, not disprovable, records. Whether ZFC proves it, equivalently whether ω12→(ω12,3)2\omega_1^2\to(\omega_1^2,3)^2 is consistent, is open: Komjáth's survey (Problem 13 commentary, on the corpus's source card) says the consistency is open as far as its author knows, and records, under the GCH heading of the survey's Problem 13, that the theorem is the case κ=ω\kappa=\omega of Hajnal's (κ+)2↛((κ+)2,3)2(\kappa^+)^2\not\to((\kappa^+)^2,3)^2 for κ<κ=κ\kappa^{<\kappa}=\kappa, that is, for regular κ\kappa under GCH, so with the cardinal-arithmetic hypothesis κ<κ=κ\kappa^{<\kappa}=\kappa together with 2κ=κ+2^\kappa=\kappa^+; at κ=ω\kappa=\omega the first condition holds in ZFC and the second is CH, which Hajnal's abstract assumes. Komjáth adds Baumgartner's extensions to singular λ\lambda with 2λ=λ+2^\lambda=\lambda^+ and to regular κ\kappa carrying a κ\kappa-Suslin tree, the latter recorded on Baumgartner's page. The graph's omission of Kℵ0,ℵ0K_{\aleph_0,\aleph_0} is more than the relation needs.

Covers. One side of an independence result: the relation holds in every model of CH, so ZFC does not refute it, but nothing here shows that ZFC does not prove it. One side alone leaves the question open, so the result leaves Problem 1169 open. It would be settled as independent by a model of ω12→(ω12,3)2\omega_1^2\to(\omega_1^2,3)^2, which no source records, and as proved by a proof of the negative relation in ZFC alone.

Formulation. The catalog's statement quantifies over finite k<ωk<\omega, but the displayed relation does not use kk; the booklet item [Va99, 7.85] asks the same question without the quantifier. Read with kk triangle colors, the relation at k=0k=0 is ω12↛(ω12)12\omega_1^2\not\to(\omega_1^2)^2_1, which is false, since with one color every set is homogeneous; so the statement quantified over all finite kk is false outright under that reading, which supports taking the displayed relation without kk as the target. The standing recorded here concerns the two-color relation as displayed.

Source. A. Hajnal, A negative partition relation, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 68 (1971), no. 1, 142--144, doi:10.1073/pnas.68.1.142. The issue is dated January 1971 and the record carries no day, so this page's date is the first of that month. The statement above follows the paper's abstract. Nothing on this page is independently reviewed by this project.

Acceptance. Refereed: the result is a journal paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Reviewed: the curator of erdosproblems.com, T. F. Bloom, labels Problem 1169 not disprovable and credits Hajnal [Ha71] with the proof under the continuum hypothesis (problem page last edited 25 January 2026); Komjáth's survey independently attributes the theorem to this paper. The curator and Komjáth are independent of the author.

Depends on. No other wiki page; the claim rests on the paper above.