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Erdős Problem 46

References:

    erdosproblems.com/46

    [Cr03] Croot, III, Ernest S., On a coloring conjecture about unit fractions. Ann. of Math. (2) (2003), 545-556.

    [ErGr80] Erdős, P. and Graham, R., Old and new problems and results in combinatorial number theory. Monographies de L'Enseignement Mathematique (1980).

namespace Erdos46

Does every finite colouring of the integers have a monochromatic solution to $1=\sum \frac{1}{n_i}$ with $2\leq n_1<\cdots <n_k$?

The answer is yes, as proved by Croot [Cr03] - indeed, there are infinitely many disjoint such monochromatic solutions.

@[category research solved, AMS 5 11, formal_proof using lean4 at "https://github.com/plby/lean-proofs/blob/main/src/v4.29.1/ErdosProblems/Erdos46.lean"] theorem erdos_46 : answer(True) -- For any finite colouring of the integers (𝓒 : ), (Set.range 𝓒).Finite -- there are integers `2 ≤ n₁ < ⋯ < n_k` S : Finset , ( n S, 2 n) -- whose reciprocals sum to `1` n S, (1 / n : ) = 1 -- and which all have the same colour (𝓒 '' (S : Set )).Subsingleton := True (𝓒 : ), (Set.range 𝓒).Finite S, (∀ n S, 2 n) n S, 1 / n = 1 (𝓒 '' S).Subsingleton All goals completed! 🐙

Croot [Cr03] proved more: there are infinitely many disjoint such monochromatic solutions.

@[category research solved, AMS 5 11] theorem erdos_46.variants.infinitely_many_disjoint : answer(True) (𝓒 : ), (Set.range 𝓒).Finite S : Finset , ( i j, i j Disjoint (S i) (S j)) i, ( n S i, 2 n) n S i, (1 / n : ) = 1 (𝓒 '' (S i : Set )).Subsingleton := True (𝓒 : ), (Set.range 𝓒).Finite S, (∀ (i j : ), i j Disjoint (S i) (S j)) (i : ), (∀ n S i, 2 n) n S i, 1 / n = 1 (𝓒 '' (S i)).Subsingleton All goals completed! 🐙

In [ErGr80] they also ask for a monochromatic representation of any $\frac{a}{b}>0$.

@[category research solved, AMS 5 11] theorem erdos_46.variants.positive_rat : answer(True) (𝓒 : ), (Set.range 𝓒).Finite q : , 0 < q S : Finset , ( n S, 2 n) n S, (1 / n : ) = q (𝓒 '' (S : Set )).Subsingleton := True (𝓒 : ), (Set.range 𝓒).Finite (q : ), 0 < q S, (∀ n S, 2 n) n S, 1 / n = q (𝓒 '' S).Subsingleton All goals completed! 🐙end Erdos46