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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. For N(b)=max⁡1≤a<bN(a,b)N(b)=\max_{1\le a<b}N(a,b), the function of Problem 304,

log⁡log⁡b ≤ 6 N(b)for every integer b≥3,\log\log b\ \le\ 6\,N(b)\qquad\text{for every integer } b\ge3,

hence log⁡log⁡b≪N(b)\log\log b\ll N(b), which is the formal-conjectures variant erdos_304.variants.lower_1950, stated with that file's definitions smallestCollection and smallestCollectionTo of N(a,b)N(a,b) and N(b)N(b). The result is the Lean 4 file erdos/304/Lower1950.lean of the GitHub repository thepriceisright/publications, pinned above. Its header says that the proof was produced by Harmonic's Aristotle prover inside an automated harness of the publishing account, which generated the theorem statement from the repository's 304.lean at the revision its header names, an earlier state than the linked record, and checked the result against that revision, and that no human mathematician has reviewed the proof. The file names no informal author, so it is an independent proof with its own page rather than a link on Erdős's 1950 page, whose Theorem 2 gives the same lower bound by a different argument. The claimant is the publishing account, which opened the pull request linked above. The route: the greedy algorithm represents (b−1)/b(b-1)/b by distinct unit fractions, so N(b−1,b)N(b-1,b) is attained by some kk-term representation; a sum of kk distinct unit fractions below 11 is at most 1−(2(k+1))−4k1-(2(k+1))^{-4^k}, so b≤(2(k+1))4kb\le(2(k+1))^{4^k}; and this gives log⁡log⁡b≤6k\log\log b\le6k for b≥3b\ge3.

Covers. The lower bound log⁡log⁡b≪N(b)\log\log b\ll N(b), with the explicit constant 66 for b≥3b\ge3, only. Not covered: the upper bounds and the question whether N(b)≪log⁡log⁡bN(b)\ll\log\log b, which the OpenAI release's accepted claim answers.

Depends on. No page of this wiki.

Standing. Claimed. The file has no write-up and no publication. The pull request that added it to google-deepmind/formal-conjectures as the formal_proof of the variant, opened 1 September 2026 and merged 18 September 2026, reports a compilation against the pinned statement with the axioms propext, Classical.choice and Quot.sound only. This corpus has not built or audited the file, so the page lists no formalized evidence. The site labels the problem OPEN and its commentary does not mention the proof.