Erdős Problem a Daythe open tracker

Erdős Problem #371

OPENdatabase updated 2025-08-31

No proof or disproof is known, and it isn't known whether a finite computation could settle it.

What the community database records, not our verdict. erdosproblems.com no longer shows statuses (why).

Let \(P(n)\) denote the largest prime factor of \(n\). Show that the set of \(n\) with \(P(n+1) > P(n)\) has density \(\frac{1}{2}\). This was proved by an internal OpenAI model in September 2026 [OAI26a]; see the linked Lean proof.
Statement as formalized in Formal Conjectures (Google DeepMind, Apache-2.0) · their label: research solved. The authoritative wording is on erdosproblems.com/371.
Newer public claim (6 Oct 2026): OpenAI's internal-model release claims, for this problem, the density of {n : P(n) < P(n+1)} is 1/2 (Erdős–Pomerance), via the joint Dickman law in natural density — read by four AI seats here 22 Oct, see /day/371-openai-joint-dickman-law-refereed — family 12 at github.com/openai/math, OpenAI's own Lean proves Theorem 1.1 (the joint Dickman law in ordinary natural density, thresholds n^a and n^b, all real X) and Corollary 1.2 (both strict orderings of P(n), P(n+1) have density 1/2). Kernel-replayed on our machine on 22 Oct 2026, after others had built it: PaperMain's 1,836-module closure (1,792 OpenAI + patched PrimeNumberTheoremAnd/StrongPNT + LeanArchitect) plus the umbrella module, 0 errors, standard axioms on all three theorems, statements and definitions matched to the comparator (10/10). The proof term reaches none of the Matomäki–Radziwiłł / MRT / Montgomery–Vaughan propositions the paper cites; it formalizes the MR method for the bin labels. Our bridge proves Formal Conjectures' erdos_371 and #928 as posed from it. Bloom calls these claims, not endorsements.
Prizenone
Topicsnumber theory
Statement in LeanFormal Conjectures
Solution in Leanno
OEISA070089
Original pageerdosproblems.com/371
FULL WRITE-UP BY THIS SITE · OCT 22, 2026

Read our full write-up →

Write P(n) for the largest prime factor of n. Erdős and Pomerance stated in 1978 (the question goes back to Erdős and Turán) that P(n) < P(n+1) should hold for exactly half of all n, in natural density, and more: that the sizes of P(n) and P(n+1), measured as powers of n, are independent, each following Dickman's law. Teräväinen proved this in logarithmic density in 2018, Tao and Teräväinen at almost all scales, Wang under the Elliott–Halberstam conjecture for smooth numbers; the best unconditional lower bound for the ordering was about 0.3. OpenAI's preprint of 24 September (84 pages, public since 6 October) proves the full joint law in ordinary natural density, so both orderings have density exactly ½. Its Lean proof — a 1,836-module closure, with patched copies of two prime-number-theorem libraries — was kernel-replayed on our machine, and its statement matched the paper. Four hostile AI seats read the paper and the Lean: HOLDS AS READ. The formal proof does not use the Matomäki–Radziwiłł theorems the paper cites. What is ours: the replay, the readings, a Lean proof of Formal Conjectures' erdos_371 from OpenAI's library (FC marked it solved on 11 October, but its proof is still sorry, and the merge commit's reviewer notes list the density-convention step as missing), an unconditional Lean proof of #928 as Erdős posed it (strict inequalities, threshold (n+1)^β; a third party had formalized the implication from the joint law, as a hypothesis, on 9–10 October), the observation that Erdős's other question in #371 — whether {n : P(n+1) > P(n)·n^α} has a density for every α — is answered by the paper's own weak-convergence step, and counts to 10¹⁰. The theorem is OpenAI's.

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