The Erdős–Gyárfás conjecture
Does every graph with minimum degree three contain a cycle of length a power of two?
▸Motivation
Erdős and Gyárfás, 1995. Erdős offered 50 for a counterexample — his usual signal that he expected it to be true but hard.
Known for graphs with no K₄ minor, and for graphs of large girth. A counterexample would need to avoid cycles of length 4, 8, 16, 32 and so on simultaneously, which is a strong constraint; a proof would need to produce one of infinitely many possible lengths, which is a weak conclusion to have to establish.
Erdős and Gyárfás, 1995.
▸Lean API
import Conjectura.Defs.Mathematics.Combinatorics.GraphTheory.CycleLength
import Mathlib.Combinatorics.SimpleGraph.Finite
namespace Conjectura.GT003
/-- Every graph with minimum degree at least three contains a cycle whose length is a
power of two. Known for graphs with no `K₄` minor, and for large girth; open in
general. -/
def goal : Prop :=
∀ (V : Type) [Fintype V] (G : SimpleGraph V) [DecidableRel G.Adj],
(∀ v : V, 3 ≤ G.degree v) → ∃ k : ℕ, HasCycleLength G (2 ^ k)
end Conjectura.GT003▸Definition8
- has a cycle of length `k`Conjectura.GraphTheory.HasCycleLength
A graph has a cycle of length
kwhen some closed walk of that length repeats no vertex or edge. Which cycle lengths a graph must contain is the subject of a large family of extremal questions.def HasCycleLength {V : Type*} (G : SimpleGraph V) (k : ℕ) : Prop := ∃ (v : V) (w : G.Walk v v), w.IsCycle ∧ w.length = k- lengthConjectura.EP0003.length
The length of a subset of is defined to be its 1-dimensional Hausdorff measure .
noncomputable def length (s : Set ℂ) : ℝ≥0∞ := μH[1] s- FintypeFintype
class
- AdjG.Adj
structure
- degreeG.degree
def
- WalkG.Walk
inductive
- IsCyclew.IsCycle
structure
- SetSet
abbrev
▸Related work0
▸For your AI
I am proving a theorem in Lean 4 and submitting it to Conjectura.
## Problem GT003 — The Erdős–Gyárfás conjecture
Does every graph with minimum degree three contain a cycle of length a power of two?
## 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 : ∀ (V : Type) [Fintype V] (G : SimpleGraph V) [DecidableRel G.Adj],
(∀ v : V, 3 ≤ G.degree v) → ∃ k : ℕ, HasCycleLength G (2 ^ k) := by
sorry
```
## The file I submit
```lean
import Conjectura.Problems.GT003.Statement
namespace Submission
theorem solution : Conjectura.GT003.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.
### has a cycle of length `k`
A graph has a cycle of length `k` when some closed walk of that length repeats no vertex or edge. Which cycle lengths a graph must contain is the subject of a large family of extremal questions.
```lean
Conjectura.GraphTheory.HasCycleLength
-- unfolds to:
def HasCycleLength {V : Type*} (G : SimpleGraph V) (k : ℕ) : Prop :=
∃ (v : V) (w : G.Walk v v), w.IsCycle ∧ w.length = k
```
Defined in this corpus.
### length
The length of a subset $s$ of $\mathbb{C}$ is defined to be its 1-dimensional Hausdorff measure $\mathcal{H}^1(s)$.
```lean
Conjectura.EP0003.length
-- unfolds to:
noncomputable def length (s : Set ℂ) : ℝ≥0∞ := μH[1] s
```
Defined in this corpus.
### Fintype
class
```lean
Fintype
```
Defined in Mathlib.
### Adj
structure
```lean
G.Adj
```
Defined in Mathlib.
### degree
def
```lean
G.degree
```
Defined in Mathlib.
### Walk
inductive
```lean
G.Walk
```
Defined in Mathlib.
### IsCycle
structure
```lean
w.IsCycle
```
Defined in Mathlib.
### Set
abbrev
```lean
Set
```
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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