The Erdős conjecture on arithmetic progressions
If the reciprocals of a set diverge, does it contain arbitrarily long progressions?
▸Motivation
Erdős' $3000 problem — his largest prize, and unclaimed.
It would imply the Green–Tao theorem on primes (since the reciprocals of the primes diverge) and Szemerédi's theorem. The Green–Tao proof works by treating the primes as a dense subset of a pseudorandom set, which uses structure a general divergent-reciprocal set has no reason to have.
Paul Erdős. $3000 prize, his largest.
▸Lean API
import Mathlib.Algebra.Order.BigOperators.Group.Finset
import Mathlib.Analysis.SpecialFunctions.Pow.Real
import Conjectura.Defs.Mathematics.Combinatorics.ArithmeticProgression
namespace Conjectura.CB008
/-- If the reciprocals of a set of naturals diverge, does it contain arbitrarily long
arithmetic progressions? Erdős offered $3000, his largest prize. The case of the
primes is the Green–Tao theorem; the general statement is open. -/
def goal : Prop :=
∀ (A : Set ℕ) [DecidablePred (· ∈ A)],
(∀ C : ℝ, ∃ N : ℕ,
C < ∑ n ∈ Finset.range N, (if n ∈ A then (1 : ℝ) / n else 0)) →
∀ k : ℕ, ContainsAPOfLength A k
end Conjectura.CB008▸Definition3
- contains an arithmetic progression of length `k`Conjectura.Combinatorics.ContainsAPOfLength
A set of naturals contains an arithmetic progression of length
kwhen someaand positive common differencedplace all ofa, a+d, …, a+(k-1)dinside it.def ContainsAPOfLength (S : Set ℕ) (k : ℕ) : Prop := ∃ a d : ℕ, 0 < d ∧ ∀ i < k, a + i * d ∈ S- SetSet
abbrev
- rangeFinset.range
def
▸Related work0
▸For your AI
I am proving a theorem in Lean 4 and submitting it to Conjectura.
## Problem CB008 — The Erdős conjecture on arithmetic progressions
If the reciprocals of a set diverge, does it contain arbitrarily long progressions?
## Environment (fixed — do not assume anything newer)
- Lean toolchain: `leanprover/lean4:v4.33.0-rc1`
- Mathlib: `v4.33.0-rc1`
If a lemma you want does not exist in that Mathlib, prove it inline instead of
importing something newer.
## The exact statement I must prove
```lean
theorem solution : ∀ (A : Set ℕ) [DecidablePred (· ∈ A)],
(∀ C : ℝ, ∃ N : ℕ, C < ∑ n ∈ Finset.range N, (if n ∈ A then (1 : ℝ) / n else 0)) →
∀ k : ℕ, ContainsAPOfLength A k := by
sorry
```
## The file I submit
```lean
import Conjectura.Problems.CB008.Statement
namespace Submission
theorem solution : Conjectura.CB008.goal := by
sorry
end Submission
```
## The Lean definitions of every term in this problem
These are the actual definitions your proof will be checked against. Do not
substitute your own version of any of them.
### contains an arithmetic progression of length `k`
A set of naturals contains an arithmetic progression of length `k` when some `a` and positive common difference `d` place all of `a, a+d, …, a+(k-1)d` inside it.
```lean
Conjectura.Combinatorics.ContainsAPOfLength
-- unfolds to:
def ContainsAPOfLength (S : Set ℕ) (k : ℕ) : Prop :=
∃ a d : ℕ, 0 < d ∧ ∀ i < k, a + i * d ∈ S
```
Defined in this corpus.
### Set
abbrev
```lean
Set
```
Defined in Mathlib.
### range
def
```lean
Finset.range
```
Defined in Mathlib.
## Rules — submissions violating these are rejected automatically
1. **Do not change the name or type of `solution`.** It must satisfy the
statement above exactly.
2. **Do not redefine or shadow anything from the problem's Statement module.**
Declaring your own `goal`, or redefining a name it depends on, produces a
proof of a *different* statement and is rejected. This is the single most
common rejection.
3. **No `sorry`** anywhere, including in helper lemmas. It surfaces as the
axiom `sorryAx` and is detected transitively through imports.
4. **No `native_decide`** — it surfaces as `Lean.ofReduceBool` and is not
accepted, because it trusts compiled code rather than the kernel.
5. Only these axioms are permitted: `propext`, `Classical.choice`,
`Quot.sound`.
6. Follow Mathlib style: hypotheses left of the colon, explicit types,
`snake_case` theorem names, `UpperCamelCase` types.
## What I want from you
Here is my argument in informal mathematics:
> [PASTE YOUR PROOF SKETCH HERE]
Turn it into Lean 4 that compiles under the environment above and satisfies the
statement exactly. Where you are unsure a lemma exists in this Mathlib version,
say so explicitly rather than guessing a name.Submissions are not open yet
Conjectura is in beta. You can read every statement, every definition and the Lean behind them, and download the exact files the checker uses — but proofs are not being accepted yet.
The reason is a deliberate order of operations. Accepting a proof means running a stranger’s code and standing behind a verdict, and no statement here yet carries a researcher’s name. A machine-checked answer to a question nobody has vouched for is worth very little, so the vouching comes first.
The English write-ups are also switched off during the beta. Nothing on this page is generated by a model.
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