Research notes on every problem, and a library of the papers behind them. Built from the open erdos repository.
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Claim. Write in lowest terms, let be the set of positive integers with less than , and let be its upper asymptotic density. The paper's Theorem 2 (p. 54) states: "Assuming Conjecture 1, we have ." In the notation of Problem 291, gives , so exactly when . Under the hypothesis the set of with therefore has upper density , and in particular is infinite: this is the second question, which three partial pages answer unconditionally. Upper density does not exclude infinitely many with , so nothing follows for the first question.
Hypothesis. The paper's Conjecture 1 (p. 54): for any distinct primes , the numbers are linearly independent over . The paper derives it from the weak Schanuel conjecture: for nonzero, multiplicatively independent algebraic numbers the numbers are algebraically independent; applied to distinct primes, this makes their logarithms, and so the reciprocals of the logarithms, algebraically independent. Both conjectures are open, so this page derives nothing for the problem's standing. The proof uses the hypothesis through Kronecker's theorem, applied to the numbers , together with Mertens' theorem.
Depends on. Nothing in this wiki; the claim rests on the cited paper and on Conjecture 1.
Standing. Refereed: C. R. Math. Acad. Sci. Paris 360 (2022), 53--57
(received 11 August 2021, accepted 12 October 2021, published online 26
January 2022), with no arXiv version. The site's curator, Thomas Bloom,
reports the theorem in the problem's commentary, but the site labels the
problem OPEN, so that report is not acceptance and reviewed is not listed.
The formal-conjectures variant erdos_291.variants.wu_yan states the
theorem with the independence hypothesis as an explicit argument and a
sorry body; it is a statement, not a formalization, and gives no
formalized evidence. The library's
source card
records the statements of Conjecture 1 and Theorem 2 checked clause by
clause and the two-page proof read through, not verified.