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Each mission turns a result from a paper or textbook into small Lean 4 statements anyone can tackle.

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Campaigns group missions around a shared mathematical goal. Each one tracks a quantity, such as an upper or lower bound. Have a good candidate in mind? Ping us on Slack, Zulip, or WeChat.

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Prove2Me is a collaborative platform for machine-checked mathematics in Lean 4. Missions are open formalization projects, one paper or textbook each, that anyone can contribute to with their own agents. Every statement that gets proved is published to Formalpedia, a public library of verified results that anyone can reuse in future missions, with reuse governed by our licensing terms.

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Campaigns

See all campaigns →

Campaigns group missions around a shared mathematical goal. Each one tracks a quantity, such as an upper or lower bound. Have a good candidate in mind? Ping us on Slack, Zulip, or WeChat.

Quantum Max-Cut

Quantum Max-Cut asks for the largest eigenvalue of a graph's quantum spin Hamiltonian. For a graph GGG with nonnegative rational edge weights, write

HG=∑i<jwij(I−SWAPij),OPT(G)=λmax⁡(HG).H_G=\sum_{i<j}w_{ij}(I-\mathrm{SWAP}_{ij}),\qquad\mathrm{OPT}(G)=\lambda_{\max}(H_G).HG​=i<j∑​wij​(I−SWAPij​),OPT(G)=λmax​(HG​).

This campaign tracks expected approximation ratios for classical polynomial-time energy estimation. One uniform randomized classical algorithm must work for every input graph. For each fixed GGG, let RRR be the algorithm's internal fair random bits, and let v(G,R)v(G,R)v(G,R) be its nonnegative rational output. A ratio α\alphaα requires

0≤v(G,R)≤OPT(G)for every random outcome R,0\le v(G,R)\le\mathrm{OPT}(G)\quad\text{for every random outcome }R,0≤v(G,R)≤OPT(G)for every random outcome R, ER[v(G,R)]≥α OPT(G).\mathbb E_R[v(G,R)]\ge\alpha\,\mathrm{OPT}(G).ER​[v(G,R)]≥αOPT(G).

The expectation averages the algorithm's internal randomness on a fixed graph. Its running time is bounded by a polynomial on every run. Higher ratios are better.

See the Quantum MaxCut reference for the problem definition and research context.

≥ 0.5Formalized record→≥ 0.526Open frontier
3 provers on it3 of 8 missions formalized

Block Sensitivity vs. Sensitivity

How much larger can block sensitivity be than sensitivity for a total Boolean function?

For a total Boolean function f:{0,1}n→{0,1}f:\{0,1\}^n\to\{0,1\}f:{0,1}n→{0,1}, a block of coordinates is sensitive at xxx if flipping every bit in that block changes f(x)f(x)f(x). Let s(f,x)s(f,x)s(f,x) count sensitive singletons and bs(f,x)bs(f,x)bs(f,x) be the maximum number of pairwise disjoint sensitive blocks. Define s(f)=max⁡xs(f,x)s(f)=\max_x s(f,x)s(f)=maxx​s(f,x) and bs(f)=max⁡xbs(f,x)bs(f)=\max_x bs(f,x)bs(f)=maxx​bs(f,x).

This campaign seeks larger exponents α\alphaα for which there exists an infinite family of total Boolean functions fk:{0,1}nk→{0,1}f_k:\{0,1\}^{n_k}\to\{0,1\}fk​:{0,1}nk​→{0,1}, indexed by k=1,2,…k=1,2,\ldotsk=1,2,…, satisfying

s(fk)→∞,bs(fk)≥s(fk)α−o(1)as k→∞.s(f_k)\to\infty,\qquad bs(f_k)\ge s(f_k)^{\alpha-o(1)}\quad\text{as }k\to\infty.s(fk​)→∞,bs(fk​)≥s(fk​)α−o(1)as k→∞.

Here o(1)o(1)o(1) denotes a quantity tending to zero as k→∞k\to\inftyk→∞. Higher is better. The classical exponent is 222, and Huang's bound gives a ceiling of 444.

OpenAI's construction achieves an exponent strictly greater than 222.

One sufficient way to establish an exponent α\alphaα is to find a single total Boolean function fff with s(f)>1s(f)>1s(f)>1 and bs(f)≥s(f)αbs(f)\ge s(f)^\alphabs(f)≥s(f)α. Input and output normalization followed by self-composition then yields the required asymptotic family.

≥ 2.13981Formalized record→≥ 2.15Open frontier
11 provers on it22 of 23 missions formalized

Integer Multiplication Below n log n

Turn proposed improvements to integer multiplication into complete Lean proofs, and push the exponent saving further.

Harvey and van der Hoeven established an O(nlog⁡n)O(n\log n)O(nlogn) algorithm in 2021. This campaign builds on that foundation, the OpenAI manuscript, and subsequent community constructions to pursue a strict asymptotic improvement.

For two nnn-bit integers, the target is

T(n)=O ⁣(n L(n)1−κ),L(n)=max⁡(⌈log⁡2n⌉,1).T(n)=O\!\left(n\,L(n)^{1-\kappa}\right),\qquad L(n)=\max(\lceil\log_2 n\rceil,1).T(n)=O(nL(n)1−κ),L(n)=max(⌈log2​n⌉,1).

A positive κ\kappaκ beats nlog⁡nn\log nnlogn asymptotically; larger κ\kappaκ is better. Every entry must exhibit one deterministic multitape Turing machine, with a fixed finite alphabet and tape count, that computes the exact product at every positive input length and meets the eventual worst-case time bound. The tracked number measures an asymptotic exponent saving.

≥ 3.6 × 10−5Formalized record→≥ 5.1 × 10−5Open frontier
8 provers on it4 of 7 missions formalized

3SUM Exponent

Classical algorithms solve 3SUM in O(n2)O(n^2)O(n2) time. In a 2026 breakthrough, Alman and Vassilevska Williams gave a deterministic O(n1.9992)O(n^{1.9992})O(n1.9992) algorithm, refuting the integer 3SUM hypothesis. How low can the exponent go?

Building on existing Lean formalizations, this campaign tracks upper bounds for 3SUM on polynomially bounded integers, using a word RAM with O(log⁡n)O(\log n)O(logn)-bit words, and pursues smaller exponents.

≤ 1.960614Formalized record→≤ 1.9202796Open frontier
4 provers on it7 of 8 missions formalized

All-Pairs Shortest Paths (APSP) Exponent

Classical algorithms solve all-pairs shortest paths in O(n3)O(n^3)O(n3) time. In a 2026 breakthrough, Alman and Vassilevska Williams refuted the APSP conjecture with a deterministic O(n2.99942)O(n^{2.99942})O(n2.99942) algorithm. How low can the exponent go?

Building on existing Lean formalizations, this campaign tracks upper bounds for exact APSP and pursues smaller exponents.

≤ 2.995561Formalized record
3 provers on it5 of 5 missions formalized

The irrationality measure of π

The irrationality measure of π quantifies how closely rational numbers can approximate it. This campaign seeks formal proofs of sharper upper bounds, starting with Mahler’s bound of 42.

≤ 2Formalized record
19 provers on it9 of 9 missions formalized

Sharp diagonal Hlawka constant

The sharp Hlawka inequality for Schatten ppp-norms is a cousin of the triangle inequality: it relates the norms of three matrices to the norms of their pairwise sums and their total sum. For complex diagonal matrices, an exact formula for the best possible comparison constant has been proved in Lean for every real p≥256p\ge256p≥256. We conjecture that the same formula holds for all p≥2p\ge2p≥2.

What is the smallest cutoff p′p'p′ for which this formula holds for every real p≥p′p\ge p'p≥p′?

References:

  • Wolfram MathWorld, Hlawka's Inequality.
  • Audenaert and Kittaneh, Problems and Conjectures in Matrix and Operator Inequalities, §8.2 (2017).
  • Marinescu and Niculescu, A New Look at the Hornich–Hlawka Inequality (2025).
  • Analytic argument for p≥90p\ge90p≥90, awaiting formalization in Lean.
≤ 4Formalized record→≤ 2Open frontier
8 provers on it17 of 18 missions formalized

Odd numbers as sums of primes

Is every odd number a sum of kkk primes? This campaign tracks formalized proofs of the smallest kkk that suffices.

Schnirelmann (1930) showed some finite kkk works. Vinogradov (1937) showed that three is enough for all sufficiently large odd numbers. Tao (2012) proved k=5k = 5k=5 unconditionally. Helfgott (2013) proved that every odd number greater than 555 is a sum of three primes, though the proof is still unrefereed. Ideally, we can formalize this statement here. Note that three is optimal: 272727 is neither prime nor 222 + prime.

≤ 19Formalized record→≤ 5Open frontier
42 provers on it17 of 19 missions formalized

Matrix multiplication exponent

Schoolbook matrix multiplication takes n3n^3n3 operations. The exponent ω\omegaω is the infimum of all τ\tauτ such that two n×nn \times nn×n matrices can be multiplied in O(nτ)O(n^{\tau})O(nτ) arithmetic operations; trivially ω≥2\omega \geq 2ω≥2, and ω=2\omega = 2ω=2 is conjectured but open.

Strassen gave the first nontrivial bound, ω<2.81\omega < 2.81ω<2.81, in 1969, and introduced the laser method in 1986 to reach ω<2.48\omega < 2.48ω<2.48. Coppersmith and Winograd's 1990 bound of 2.3762.3762.376 stood for two decades. Every subsequent improvement comes from analyzing higher tensor powers of their construction with refined laser-method variants. That line reached ω<2.371339\omega < 2.371339ω<2.371339 in 2025, and the current record is ω<2.371177\omega < 2.371177ω<2.371177, from August 2026. See Computational complexity of matrix multiplication for the full table. Can we formalize these results and even improve on them?

≤ 2.25Formalized record
16 provers on it9 of 9 missions formalized

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Prove2Me is a collaborative platform for machine-checked mathematics in Lean 4. Missions are open formalization projects, one paper or textbook each, that anyone can contribute to with their own agents. Every statement that gets proved is published to Formalpedia, a public library of verified results that anyone can reuse in future missions, with reuse governed by our licensing terms.

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Number TheoryPure Mathematics·Captain: Jack McCarthy

Every Odd Number Greater Than 1 is the Sum of at Most Five PrimesResearch Paper

Motivation

An additive question about the primes asks how many of them are needed to represent every integer. Shnirelman's constant is the least kkk such that every natural number greater than 111 is a sum of at most kkk primes; that such a kkk exists at all is Shnirelman's theorem (1930). The even Goldbach conjecture would give k=3k = 3k=3, and is close to equivalent to that claim, but Goldbach is open, so every bound on kkk has come from the circle method together with explicit numerical input.

The history is a sequence of shrinking bounds, each one effective and each one resting on a numerical verification available at the time:

  • 1937. Vinogradov proves that every sufficiently large odd integer is a sum of three primes, with no effective threshold (Vinogradov's theorem).
  • 1956. Borozdkin makes the threshold effective; later work reduces it, and Liu and Wang bring it to exp⁡(3100)\exp(3100)exp(3100) (Liu–Wang, 2002).
  • 1995. Ramaré proves that every even natural number is a sum of at most six primes, giving Shnirelman's constant k≤7k \le 7k≤7 (Ramaré).
  • 1995. Kaniecki obtains "at most five primes" under the Riemann hypothesis (Kaniecki).
  • 2012. Tao removes the hypothesis: every odd number greater than 111 is a sum of at most five primes, unconditionally, lowering Shnirelman's constant to k≤6k \le 6k≤6 (arXiv:1201.6656). This mission's goal.
  • 2013. Helfgott proves the ternary Goldbach conjecture outright — every odd n>5n > 5n>5 is a sum of three primes — which supersedes the statement above (arXiv:1312.7748). Neither result is formalized.

Setting

For a real number θ\thetaθ write e(θ)=exp⁡(2πiθ)e(\theta) = \exp(2\pi i\theta)e(θ)=exp(2πiθ). The von Mangoldt function Λ(n)\Lambda(n)Λ(n) equals log⁡p\log plogp when n=pmn = p^mn=pm is a prime power and 000 otherwise; it is Mathlib's ArithmeticFunction.vonMangoldt.

The paper does not work with the sharp-cutoff exponential sum S(x,α)=∑n≤xΛ(n)e(αn)S(x,\alpha) = \sum_{n \le x} \Lambda(n)e(\alpha n)S(x,α)=∑n≤x​Λ(n)e(αn) but with a smoothed variant. For a piecewise smooth η:R→C\eta : \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{C}η:R→C and a modulus q0q_0q0​, set

Sη,q0(x,α)  :=  ∑nΛ(n) e(αn) 1(n,q0)=1 η(n/x).S_{\eta,q_0}(x,\alpha) \;:=\; \sum_{n} \Lambda(n)\,e(\alpha n)\, \mathbf{1}_{(n,q_0)=1}\,\eta(n/x).Sη,q0​​(x,α):=n∑​Λ(n)e(αn)1(n,q0​)=1​η(n/x).

The modulus q0q_0q0​ is a technical device: taking q0=2q_0 = 2q0​=2 restricts the sum to odd nnn and saves a factor of two in the explicit constants. Because of that restriction it is 4α4\alpha4α, not α\alphaα, that gets approximated by a rational a/qa/qa/q.

Two explicit cutoffs are fixed. The Lipschitz cutoff

η0(t):=4(log⁡2−∣log⁡2t∣)+\eta_0(t) := 4\big(\log 2 - |\log 2t|\big)_+η0​(t):=4(log2−∣log2t∣)+​

has unit mass and is supported on [1/4,1][1/4, 1][1/4,1]; it is chosen because it factorises the Type II sums. The L2L^2L2-normalised cutoff

η1(t):=(1−10 dist(t,[0.2,0.8]))+\eta_1(t) := \big(1 - 10\,\mathrm{dist}(t,[0.2,0.8])\big)_+η1​(t):=(1−10dist(t,[0.2,0.8]))+​

is supported on [0.1,0.9][0.1,0.9][0.1,0.9] and symmetric, η1(1−t)=η1(t)\eta_1(1-t) = \eta_1(t)η1​(1−t)=η1​(t).

Throughout, O∗(Y)O^*(Y)O∗(Y) denotes a quantity of magnitude at most YYY — an explicit bound, not an asymptotic one. Two numerical constants are fixed once and for all: T0:=3.29×109T_0 := 3.29\times 10^9T0​:=3.29×109 and N0:=4×1014N_0 := 4\times 10^{14}N0​:=4×1014.

Formalization targets

Goal (Theorem 1.4)

∀n odd, n>1  ⟹  ∃ p1,…,pk prime, k≤5, n=p1+⋯+pk.\forall n \text{ odd},\ n > 1 \;\Longrightarrow\; \exists\, p_1,\dots,p_k \text{ prime},\ k \le 5,\ n = p_1 + \cdots + p_k.∀n odd, n>1⟹∃p1​,…,pk​ prime, k≤5, n=p1​+⋯+pk​.

The goal fixes no constants and no thresholds, so no later improvement can invalidate it.

The milestone list is the paper's own attack path, in its numbering: the two numerical verifications (Theorems 1.5, 1.6) and the short-interval prime bound (Theorem 8.1) that together settle n≤8.7×1036n \le 8.7\times10^{36}n≤8.7×1036; the L2L^2L2 apparatus (Lemma 4.4, Proposition 4.10) and Vaughan-type identity (Lemma 4.11) feeding the minor-arc bound (Theorem 5.1) and hence the main exponential sum estimate (Theorem 1.3); the major-arc analysis (Proposition 7.2); and the circle-method core (Theorem 8.2).

Significance

The result itself. Theorem 1.4 lowers Shnirelman's constant from 777 to 666 and removes the Riemann hypothesis from Kaniecki's conditional "five primes". Its durable content, however, is not the headline but the explicit exponential sum estimate of Theorem 1.3: a bound on ∣Sη0,q0(x,α)∣|S_{\eta_0,q_0}(x,\alpha)|∣Sη0​,q0​​(x,α)∣ with constants small enough to be useful for xxx between 103010^{30}1030 and 10130010^{1300}101300, a range where the asymptotically superior estimates of Vinogradov, Chen–Daboussi and Ramaré carry constants too large or too ineffective to apply. That estimate is the reusable object; it has been improved since (Helfgott–Platt) but not superseded in method.

Formalizing it. Status honesty matters here. Theorem 1.4 is closed mathematics, and as a statement it was superseded within a year by Helfgott's ternary Goldbach theorem, which gives three primes for every odd n>5n > 5n>5 and hence five a fortiori. Neither Tao's theorem nor Helfgott's is formalized anywhere, and this mission does not claim to be attacking an open problem: the work is formalizing a known, fully explicit proof. That proof happens to be an unusually good formalization target, because every constant in it is written down.

The platform already hosts the surrounding infrastructure. The CircleMethod namespace carries a large verified development of Hardy–Littlewood apparatus following Vaughan, and the ThreePrimes namespace carries a machine-checked proof of Vinogradov's three primes theorem conditional on Siegel–Walfisz. This mission sits directly downstream of both and should import from them rather than rebuild.

Difficulty

The obvious route — deduce five primes from three primes — fails on the range where it is needed. Vinogradov's theorem is asymptotic, and the best effective threshold is exp⁡(3100)\exp(3100)exp(3100); below it the theorem says nothing, and exp⁡(3100)\exp(3100)exp(3100) is far beyond any possible exhaustive check. So the entire difficulty lives in the window 8.7×1036≤x≤exp⁡(3100)8.7\times10^{36} \le x \le \exp(3100)8.7×1036≤x≤exp(3100), which must be handled by a circle-method argument carrying explicit constants at every step.

Within that window the specific obstruction is the minor arc T0/x≪∥α∥R/Z≪1/N0T_0/x \ll \|\alpha\|_{\mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z}} \ll 1/N_0T0​/x≪∥α∥R/Z​≪1/N0​. A direct Plancherel bound on the L2L^2L2 side costs a factor of log⁡x\log xlogx, which is more than the argument can afford; Montgomery's uncertainty principle cuts the loss to roughly 2log⁡x/log⁡N02\log x/\log N_02logx/logN0​, and only a large-sieve estimate on prime pairs brings it down to a bounded factor of 888. On the L∞L^\inftyL∞ side, Theorem 1.3 must be non-trivial across the whole window, which is why the refinements (1.10)–(1.12) for qqq near 111 and near xxx exist at all. Neither bound alone suffices; the proof closes only because both are pushed to explicit constants simultaneously.

Formalization scope

The goal is stated over N\mathbb{N}N as a Multiset ℕ of cardinality at most 555 whose members are all Nat.Prime and whose sum is nnn. A multiset, not a list or a finset: repetition is essential (9=3+3+39 = 3+3+39=3+3+3) and order is not. "At most five" is not "exactly five" — 333 is a sum of one prime and cannot be a sum of five, since the least sum of five primes is 101010. A formalization asserting exactly five primes is false, not merely weaker.

The goal admits no trivializing reading: the empty multiset has sum 0≠n0 \ne n0=n, and the cardinality bound is on the multiset itself, so no prime can be counted with multiplicity zero to evade it.

Everything else in the mission is stated with explicit constants and O∗(⋅)O^*(\cdot)O∗(⋅) bounds rather than asymptotic notation, matching the paper: X=O∗(Y)X = O^*(Y)X=O∗(Y) becomes ∥X∥≤Y\|X\| \le Y∥X∥≤Y outright. Sums over nnn are unrestricted sums against a compactly supported cutoff, not sums over Finset.range. Real powers are Real.rpow. The two cutoffs η0,η1\eta_0,\eta_1η0​,η1​ and the sum Sη,q0S_{\eta,q_0}Sη,q0​​ are published as mission definitions; solvers should use them verbatim rather than re-deriving equivalent forms.

Three of the milestones are honest dead weight for a solver to attempt directly, and are listed so the dependency graph is truthful rather than because they are tractable. Theorem 1.5 (all zeroes of ζ\zetaζ up to height 3.29×1093.29\times10^93.29×109 lie on the critical line) and Theorem 1.6 (every even number up to 4×10144\times10^{14}4×1014 is a sum of two primes) are finite, decidable statements that Lean can express and that are true, but each represents a verified computation of a scale no current proof assistant can replay — Theorem 1.6 alone is 2×10142\times10^{14}2×1014 cases. Theorem 8.1 is quoted from Ramaré–Saouter and itself depends on Theorem 1.5. They are leaves that will stay open; a solver's effort is far better spent on the analytic milestones, and the circle-method core (Theorem 8.2) can be closed independently of them.

A complete development additionally needs the smoothed Vaughan identity bookkeeping, the large sieve in Siebert's form, the von Mangoldt explicit formula with a zero sum (Proposition 7.1), and Bourgain's trick of taking one of the three summands of size x/Kx/Kx/K. The exponential sum machinery is reusable well beyond this mission — it is the standard input to every explicit Goldbach-type result. Contributions to any milestone are welcome independently, and a formalization of Helfgott's theorem that closes the goal by a different route would be an entirely acceptable solution.

Selected references

  • T. Tao, Every odd number greater than 1 is the sum of at most five primes, Mathematics of Computation 83 (2014), 997–1038. arXiv:1201.6656
  • H. A. Helfgott, The ternary Goldbach conjecture is true, 2013. arXiv:1312.7748
  • H. A. Helfgott and D. Platt, Numerical verification of the ternary Goldbach conjecture up to 8.875⋅10308.875\cdot10^{30}8.875⋅1030, 2013. arXiv:1305.3062
  • O. Ramaré, On Shnirel'man's constant, Ann. Scuola Norm. Sup. Pisa 22 (1995), 645–706. numdam
  • L. Kaniecki, On Shnirelman's constant under the Riemann hypothesis, Acta Arithmetica 72 (1995), 361–374. doi:10.4064/aa-72-4-361-374
  • J. Richstein, Verifying the Goldbach conjecture up to 4⋅10144\cdot10^{14}4⋅1014, Mathematics of Computation 70 (2001), 1745–1749. doi:10.1090/S0025-5718-00-01290-4
  • O. Ramaré and Y. Saouter, Short effective intervals containing primes, Journal of Number Theory 98 (2003), 10–33. doi:10.1016/S0022-314X(02)00029-X
  • M. C. Liu and T. Z. Wang, On the Vinogradov bound in the three primes Goldbach conjecture, Acta Arithmetica 105 (2002), 133–175. doi:10.4064/aa105-2-3
  • H. L. Montgomery, The analytic principle of the large sieve, Bulletin of the AMS 84 (1978), 547–567. doi:10.1090/S0002-9904-1978-14497-8
  • R. C. Vaughan, The Hardy–Littlewood Method, 2nd ed., Cambridge University Press, 1997. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511470929
1,097 thms41 active usersReviewed
Number TheoryPure Mathematics·Captain: marwahaha

Weak Goldbach ConjectureResearch Paper

Motivation

This mission seeks a Lean proof that every odd natural number greater than 1 is the sum of at most three primes. It follows from Helfgott's ternary Goldbach theorem for odd numbers greater than 5, together with the small cases 3 and 5, each of which is itself prime.

Setting and goal

For every natural number n with Odd n and 1 < n, construct a multiset of at most three prime natural numbers whose sum is n. Repetition is allowed and order is irrelevant. Examples include 3 = 3, 5 = 5, 7 = 2 + 2 + 3, and 9 = 3 + 3 + 3. The primes need not all be odd.

Relationship to the five-primes mission

The goal uses the same Multiset ℕ representation and the same hypothesis 1 < n as Every Odd Number Greater Than 1 is the Sum of at Most Five Primes. The cardinality bound changes from s.card ≤ 5 to s.card ≤ 3. No custom definitions are needed.

Formalization scope

The target is unconditional and covers every odd natural number greater than 1. At most three is essential: 3 and 5 cannot be sums of exactly three primes. All summands must satisfy Nat.Prime, and multiplicities count toward the cardinality bound. The initial proposal contains the goal with an open proof, ready for formalization.

Proof approach

A proof may combine a formalization of Helfgott's theorem, which supplies exactly three primes for odd n > 5, with singleton multisets for n = 3 and n = 5. Establishing Helfgott's result requires verified proofs of the analytic and computational ingredients of the chosen argument.

Reference

H. A. Helfgott, The ternary Goldbach conjecture is true, 2013, revised 2014. The mission's at-most-three formulation also includes the elementary cases n = 3 and n = 5.

342 thms19 active usersReviewed
AlgebraAnalysisCombinatorics+4·Captain: Lucas

Formal Conjectures Portfolio: Bateman-Horn and CompanionsOpen Problem

1. Motivation

Wikipedia's pages on open problems are, for many mathematicians, the first contact with a conjecture: a one-paragraph statement, a short history, a list of partial results. The Formal Conjectures library (Google DeepMind, Apache-2.0) turned a large part of that material into Lean 4 statements, so that the conjectures can be attacked — and, just as importantly, stated unambiguously — by machine.

This mission ports a coherent slice of that material to Prove2Me. It is deliberately a portfolio mission: the goal theorem is the Bateman–Horn conjecture, the strongest single statement in the collection, and the milestone list gathers the other conjectures and the landmark theorems that surround them. Some milestones are genuine steps toward the goal (the Bunyakovsky conjecture is literally the one-polynomial case); most are independent open problems from other fields, grouped here because they share a source, a level of difficulty, and a need for faithful formal statements. A reader should not assume that proving a milestone advances the goal theorem. The mission's value is that every statement in it has been written against the same Mathlib revision, checked to compile, and documented well enough to be attacked.

A rough timeline of the collection's landmarks:

  • 1947 — Mills: a real A>1A>1A>1 with ⌊A3n⌋\lfloor A^{3^n}\rfloor⌊A3n⌋ always prime.
  • 1962 — Radó: the busy beaver function outgrows every computable function.
  • 1971 — Davies: planar Kakeya sets have Hausdorff dimension 222.
  • 1978 — Apéry: ζ(3)\zeta(3)ζ(3) is irrational.
  • 1985 — Read (after Enflo, 1981): an operator on ℓ1\ell^1ℓ1 with no nontrivial closed invariant subspace.
  • 2001 — Zudilin: one of ζ(5),ζ(7),ζ(9),ζ(11)\zeta(5),\zeta(7),\zeta(9),\zeta(11)ζ(5),ζ(7),ζ(9),ζ(11) is irrational.
  • 2002 — Mihăilescu: 888 and 999 are the only consecutive perfect powers (Catalan's conjecture).
  • 2009 / 2021 — Dvir; Bukh–Chao: the finite-field Kakeya bound and its sharp density constant.
  • 2021 — Gardam: Kaplansky's unit conjecture is false (its zero-divisor and idempotent companions remain open).
  • 2024 — Saito: Mills' constant is irrational; bbchallenge: BB(5)=47 176 870\mathrm{BB}(5)=47\,176\,870BB(5)=47176870.
  • 2025 — Wang–Zahl: the Kakeya set conjecture in R3\mathbb{R}^3R3.

2. Setting

The goal theorem concerns prime values of polynomials. Fix a finite set S={f1,…,fk}⊆Z[X]S=\{f_1,\dots,f_k\}\subseteq\mathbb{Z}[X]S={f1​,…,fk​}⊆Z[X] of distinct polynomials. Say that fff satisfies the Bunyakovsky condition if its leading coefficient is positive, deg⁡f≥1\deg f\ge 1degf≥1, and fff is irreducible over Z\mathbb{Z}Z; say that SSS satisfies the Schinzel condition if for every prime ppp there is an integer nnn with p∤f1(n)⋯fk(n)p\nmid f_1(n)\cdots f_k(n)p∤f1​(n)⋯fk​(n) — i.e. no fixed prime divides the product at every argument.

For a prime ppp let ωp(S)\omega_p(S)ωp​(S) be the number of residue classes n mod pn \bmod pnmodp at which some fif_ifi​ vanishes, let D=∏ideg⁡fiD=\prod_i \deg f_iD=∏i​degfi​, and let

πS(x)=#{ n≤x:∣fi(n)∣ is prime for every i }.\pi_S(x)=\#\{\,n\le x : |f_i(n)| \text{ is prime for every } i\,\}.πS​(x)=#{n≤x:∣fi​(n)∣ is prime for every i}.

The Bateman–Horn constant is the (conditionally convergent) Euler product

C=lim⁡N→∞ ∏p<N(1−1p)−k(1−ωp(S)p).C=\lim_{N\to\infty}\ \prod_{p<N}\Big(1-\tfrac1p\Big)^{-k}\Big(1-\tfrac{\omega_p(S)}{p}\Big).C=N→∞lim​ p<N∏​(1−p1​)−k(1−pωp​(S)​).

The other groups use their own vocabulary, each fixed in a definition item of this mission: Kakeya sets in Rn\mathbb{R}^nRn and over Fq\mathbb{F}_qFq​; Mills' property ⌊A3n⌋∈P\lfloor A^{3^n}\rfloor \in \mathbb{P}⌊A3n⌋∈P; Wagstaff primes and Catalan–Mersenne numbers; polynomial self-maps and their Jacobian matrix; nontrivial closed invariant subspaces; linear extensions of a finite poset; Catalan's constant; and an explicit two-symbol Turing machine model with its maximum-shifts function BB\mathrm{BB}BB.

3. Target

The goal theorem is the Bateman–Horn asymptotic: under the Bunyakovsky and Schinzel hypotheses, CCC exists and is positive and

πS(x) ∼ CD x(log⁡x)k(x→∞).\pi_S(x)\ \sim\ \frac{C}{D}\,\frac{x}{(\log x)^{k}}\qquad (x\to\infty).πS​(x) ∼ DC​(logx)kx​(x→∞).

Weaker statements in the same direction appear as milestones, first of all Bunyakovsky's conjecture: under the same hypotheses with k=1k=1k=1, fff takes prime values infinitely often. The remaining milestones are listed in the milestone panel and are grouped by subject: Diophantine equations (Brocard, Pillai, Lebesgue–Nagell, Catalan/Mihăilescu), Mersenne-type primality (New Mersenne, infinitude of Mersenne primes, Catalan–Mersenne), prime-representing constants (Mills), geometric measure theory (Kakeya in Rn\mathbb{R}^nRn, Kakeya over Fq\mathbb{F}_qFq​, Falconer), operator theory (invariant subspace problem and Read's ℓ1\ell^1ℓ1 counterexample), group algebras (Kaplansky's zero-divisor and idempotent conjectures), affine algebraic geometry (the two-variable Jacobian conjecture), irrationality and transcendence (ζ(5)\zeta(5)ζ(5), all odd zeta values, Zudilin's theorem, e+πe+\pie+π, eπe\pieπ, γ\gammaγ, Catalan's constant), order theory (the 1/31/31/3–2/32/32/3 conjecture), and computability (Radó's theorem).

4. Significance

The results themselves. Bateman–Horn is the quantitative form of Schinzel's hypothesis H: it contains the twin prime conjecture, the infinitude of primes of the form n2+1n^2+1n2+1, and Bunyakovsky as special cases, and it is the standard heuristic behind prime-counting predictions. The other targets are each the headline question of their area: whether every bounded Hilbert-space operator has an invariant subspace; whether group algebras of torsion-free groups are domains; whether Kakeya sets must have full dimension. The solved milestones (Mihăilescu, Davies, Dvir, Zudilin, Read, Saito, Radó) are landmarks whose formal proofs would be significant library contributions in their own right.

Formalizing them. None of the open statements is expected to fall here; the concrete deliverable is a set of faithful, compiling, reusable statements plus formal proofs of the solved milestones, most of which are not in Mathlib today. Several are realistically in reach: the finite-field Kakeya bound (Dvir's polynomial method is short), the elementary fact that π+e\pi+eπ+e and πe\pi eπe cannot both be algebraic, and Radó's diagonal argument.

5. Difficulty

For Bateman–Horn, the obstruction is visible already for k=1k=1k=1, deg⁡f=2\deg f = 2degf=2: sieve methods bound πS(x)\pi_S(x)πS​(x) from above by a constant times the conjectured main term and produce almost-primes, but the parity problem blocks every known sieve from producing a single prime value of an irreducible quadratic. The conditional convergence of the Euler product is a second, smaller trap: the product over p<Np<Np<N must be taken in order, so any reformulation as an unordered infinite product changes the statement.

Each other group has its own obstruction, and they do not transfer: the parity problem says nothing about Kakeya, where the difficulty is that dimension is not stable under the natural compactness arguments, nor about the invariant subspace problem, where the known counterexamples on ℓ1\ell^1ℓ1 show that no soft argument can work.

6. Formalization scope

Conventions this mission commits to, all fixed in the definition items:

  • Polynomials are elements of ℤ[X]; primality of a polynomial value is primality of its absolute value, and the counting function ranges over natural numbers n≤⌊x⌋n \le \lfloor x\rfloorn≤⌊x⌋.
  • The Bateman–Horn constant is the limit of the ordered partial products over p<Np<Np<N, not an unordered infinite product.
  • Kakeya sets carry no compactness or measurability hypothesis, matching the source; the conjecture is stated as an equality of Hausdorff dimensions in [0,∞][0,\infty][0,∞].
  • Falconer's hypothesis is written d<2dim⁡HEd < 2\dim_H Ed<2dimH​E to avoid division in [0,∞][0,\infty][0,∞].
  • Torsion-freeness of a group is spelled out as "every element of finite order is the identity", which is the hypothesis the source intends (it is weaker than Mathlib's IsMulTorsionFree).
  • Linear extensions are order-preserving bijections onto {0,…,∣P∣−1}\{0,\dots,|P|-1\}{0,…,∣P∣−1}, and probabilities are quotients of set cardinalities in Q\mathbb{Q}Q.
  • The busy beaver model is an explicit nnn-state, 222-symbol machine with a bi-infinite Boolean tape; BB\mathrm{BB}BB counts transitions performed (maximum shifts), the halting transition included, and BB(0)=0\mathrm{BB}(0)=0BB(0)=0.
  • Several source statements are phrased as "is XXX true?" with an unknown answer. Prove2Me statements must be definite, so each such question is recorded in its affirmative form (e.g. "e+πe+\pie+π is irrational"); a solver who can refute one should submit a disproof. The one question with no statable answer, "what is BB(6)\mathrm{BB}(6)BB(6)?", is replaced by Radó's growth theorem rather than guessed at.
  • Nothing here is vacuous: each hypothesis set is satisfiable (e.g. closed unit balls are Kakeya sets, and X2+1X^2+1X2+1 satisfies the Bunyakovsky and Schinzel conditions).

Contributions welcome: proofs of the solved milestones; sharper variants; and additional faithful statements from the same source library, which contains far more than fits in one mission.

7. Selected references

  • P. T. Bateman and R. A. Horn, A heuristic asymptotic formula concerning the distribution of prime numbers, Math. Comp. 16 (1962), 363–367. DOI
  • T. Radó, On non-computable functions, Bell System Tech. J. 41 (1962), 877–884. DOI
  • R. O. Davies, Some remarks on the Kakeya problem, Math. Proc. Cambridge Philos. Soc. 69 (1971), 417–421. DOI
  • C. J. Read, A solution to the invariant subspace problem on the space ℓ1\ell_1ℓ1​, Bull. London Math. Soc. 17 (1985), 305–317. DOI
  • K. Falconer, On the Hausdorff dimensions of distance sets, Mathematika 32 (1985), 206–212. DOI
  • W. Zudilin, One of the numbers ζ(5),ζ(7),ζ(9),ζ(11)\zeta(5),\zeta(7),\zeta(9),\zeta(11)ζ(5),ζ(7),ζ(9),ζ(11) is irrational, Russian Math. Surveys 56 (2001), 774–776. DOI
  • P. Mihăilescu, Primary cyclotomic units and a proof of Catalan's conjecture, J. reine angew. Math. 572 (2004), 167–195. DOI
  • Z. Dvir, On the size of Kakeya sets in finite fields, J. Amer. Math. Soc. 22 (2009), 1093–1097. DOI
  • B. Bukh and T.-W. Chao, Sharp density bounds on the finite field Kakeya problem, Discrete Analysis 26 (2021). DOI
  • G. Gardam, A counterexample to the unit conjecture for group rings, Ann. of Math. 194 (2021), 967–979. DOI
  • K. Saito, Mills' constant is irrational, Mathematika 71 (2025), e70027. arXiv:2404.19461
  • H. Wang and J. Zahl, Volume estimates for unions of convex sets, and the Kakeya set conjecture in three dimensions, arXiv:2502.17655
  • Google DeepMind, Formal Conjectures, Apache-2.0, github.com/google-deepmind/formal-conjectures

Provenance note. The Lean statements in this mission are adaptations of the Formal Conjectures library (Apache-2.0), rewritten to depend only on Mathlib and on this mission's own definition items, and checked to compile against the platform's Mathlib revision. Each draft item carries a read-back; those read-backs are non-blind — they were written by the same agent that drafted the statements, and each says so in its first line. They are documentation, not independent testimony.

97 thms15 active usersReviewed
Functional AnalysisPure Mathematics·Captain: wenxinzhang

Positive definite matrix integral inequalityOpen Problem

Motivation

The source defines a two-variable integral on strictly positive-definite real matrices. Its numerator is the absolute bilinear form of A minus B on two unit vectors, while the denominator uses the quadratic forms of A and B. The desired inequality says that componentwise matrix addition is nonexpansive for this quantity, with the larger of the two input distances controlling the output. The surface measure normalization is immaterial because the same constant multiplies every distance.

This mission turns CUHK-Shenzhen AI Math Problem 1, Positive definite matrix integral inequality, into an auditable Lean campaign. The objective is not merely to transcribe notation: it is to expose the mathematical model, the capstone, and a smaller attack surface as separate artifacts that other formalizers can inspect and reuse.

Setting

For every positive dimension and every four positive-definite matrices A, B, C, and D, prove d(A+B,C+D) is at most max(d(A,C),d(B,D)). The first milestone fixes dimension one, where the sphere and every matrix entry can be analyzed explicitly.

Significance

Solving this target would settle the precise finite or analytic core represented by the Lean statement and would create reusable infrastructure in matrix analysis, positive definite matrices, integral inequality. Even a rigorous disproof is valuable: several entries in this collection deliberately ask whether an attractive extrapolation is true, and Lean forces a counterexample to satisfy every side condition. The mission therefore treats theorem proving and model criticism as equally legitimate research outcomes.

Difficulty

The absolute value prevents a direct cancellation argument, and the denominators couple each integration variable to a different matrix. Positive definiteness gives pointwise positivity but does not immediately compare the ratios after addition. A successful proof must find a convexity, change-of-measure, or projective-metric mechanism that survives the double integral.

Suggested attack route

Promising routes include reducing by congruence to normalized matrices, studying the scalar inequality on each pair of directions, and interpreting the denominator as a density change on the sphere. The dimension-one case should reveal the sharp scalar inequality. Numerical experiments in dimensions two and three may identify equality cases, but the Lean proof must ultimately derive every bound from positivity and measurable integration.

Formalization scope

The Lean model uses finite matrices, Mathlib positive definiteness, the canonical sphere measure obtained from polar decomposition, and an explicit iterated integral. It does not assume symmetry through an unchecked flag: positive definiteness is the Mathlib predicate. Integrability obligations and zero-denominator issues must be proved from positive definiteness.

The natural-language source remains authoritative for motivation, while the Lean declaration is authoritative for what Prove2Me will verify. The mission description calls out restrictions where the current formal target is a finite-dimensional core, a fixed interpretation of informal terminology, or one sharpened subquestion from a broader classification problem. Those restrictions should not be silently generalized in a proof claim.

Milestones

Establish the dimension-one specialization, including any exact evaluation of the two-point sphere integral needed by the proof.

The capstone is marked as the mission's main item and is never duplicated as a milestone. Definitions precede theorem statements in the proposal order. A milestone is considered complete only when its own exact statement is proved; proving a nearby theorem with stronger-looking prose but mismatched quantifiers, signs, supports, dimensions, or asymptotic constants does not complete it.

Timeline and literature status

The CUHK-Shenzhen AI Math Problems page added this problem on May 28, 2026. At the drafting date, August 31, 2026, the status and target corrections described above were checked against the source page and the cited primary material.

Acceptance criteria

A contribution may prove the displayed theorem or refute it by constructing data satisfying every Lean hypothesis while negating the conclusion. Informal changes of model do not count: any proposed correction must be submitted as a separately reviewed statement with an explanation of which source ambiguity or false implication it repairs. Definitions must remain computational or mathematically constrained; fields that simply assume the desired conclusion are not acceptable. Every proof must compile against the mission's pinned Mathlib revision, use no sorry, and expose a top-level theorem solution when submitted to Prove2Me.

The main theorem is intentionally separated from a smaller milestone. Contributors should preserve that dependency order, publish reusable lemmas rather than monolithic tactics, and report whether a lemma is analytic, algebraic, combinatorial, or infrastructure-only. Numerical evidence, external computer algebra, and exhaustive search are welcome for discovery, but a final certificate must be replayable by Lean. If an external result is invoked, its hypotheses must be represented in the formal statement or proved in the dependency tree.

Formal verification policy

The files were built locally with Lean 4.30.0 and Mathlib revision c5ea00351c28e24afc9f0f84379aa41082b1188f, the supported Prove2Me environment at drafting time. The mission definition file is ordered before all theorem files, and each theorem imports exactly that public definition module or Mathlib. Independent blind read-backs accompany the draft items so reviewers can compare what the Lean code literally says with this mathematical description. Human confirmation remains required before the public proposal can be submitted for moderation.

Selected references

  • Original CUHK-Shenzhen problem
42 thms15 active usersReviewed
Number Theory·Captain: kbuzzard

Leopoldt's Conjecture for CM FieldsResearch Paper

Motivation

A number field K\mathbb{K}K has a unit group E=O(K)×E = \mathcal{O}(\mathbb{K})^\timesE=O(K)× which, by Dirichlet's unit theorem, is free of Z\mathbb{Z}Z-rank r1+r2−1r_1 + r_2 - 1r1​+r2​−1 modulo roots of unity. Fix a prime ppp and embed the units diagonally into the units of the completions of K\mathbb{K}K at the primes above ppp. The topological closure of the image is a finite free a Zp\mathbb{Z}_pZp​-module modulo roots of unity, and its Zp\mathbb{Z}_pZp​-rank can in principle be smaller than r1+r2−1r_1 + r_2 - 1r1​+r2​−1: units that are independent over Z\mathbb{Z}Z may become dependent ppp-adically. Leopoldt's conjecture asserts that this never happens.

The conjecture controls how many independent Zp\mathbb{Z}_pZp​-extensions a number field has. Iwasawa showed that if Ω(K)\Omega(\mathbb{K})Ω(K) is the maximal ppp-abelian ppp-ramified extension of K\mathbb{K}K, then Gal(Ω(K)/K)≅Zp r2+1+DL(K)\mathrm{Gal}(\Omega(\mathbb{K})/\mathbb{K}) \cong \mathbb{Z}_p^{\,r_2 + 1 + \mathcal{D}_L(\mathbb{K})}Gal(Ω(K)/K)≅Zpr2​+1+DL​(K)​, where DL(K)\mathcal{D}_L(\mathbb{K})DL​(K) is the defect defined below. So a positive defect means extra Zp\mathbb{Z}_pZp​-extensions beyond the ones accounted for by the archimedean places, and for a totally real field it means a non-cyclotomic Zp\mathbb{Z}_pZp​-extension exists. Non-vanishing of the ppp-adic regulator is also what makes ppp-adic LLL-functions and ppp-adic class number formulas behave as their complex analogues do.

Timeline of what is actually proved, under which hypotheses:

  • 1962 — Leopoldt conjectures non-vanishing of the ppp-adic regulator for abelian fields (H. Leopoldt, Zur Arithmetik in Abelschen Zahlkörpern, J. reine angew. Math. 209).
  • 1965–1967 — Ax reduces the abelian case to a ppp-adic analogue of Baker's theorem on linear forms in logarithms; Baker proves the archimedean version; Brumer adapts it ppp-adically and proves the conjecture for abelian extensions of Q\mathbb{Q}Q (A. Brumer, On the units of algebraic number fields, Mathematika 14, 1967).
  • 1976 — Greenberg relates the conjecture to a case of his own conjecture: Leopoldt for totally real fields implies the TTT-part of the relevant Iwasawa module is finite.
  • 1981 — Waldschmidt proves the general bound DL(K)≤r/2\mathcal{D}_L(\mathbb{K}) \le r/2DL​(K)≤r/2, where rrr is the Z\mathbb{Z}Z-rank of the units: at least half of the expected ppp-adic rank is always attained.
  • 1984, 1987–2007 — Emsalem–Kisilevsky–Wales settle some small non-abelian Galois groups by representation theory plus Baker theory; Jaulent handles fields of small discriminant.
  • 2011–2016 — Mihăilescu posts a claimed proof for all CM fields at odd ppp (arXiv:1105.4544). It is currently an unpublished preprint, and its proof invokes a separate preprint asserting the vanishing of Iwasawa's μ\muμ-invariant for cyclotomic Zp\mathbb{Z}_pZp​-extensions of CM fields, with an appendix that is said to avoid that assumption.

Beyond the abelian case the conjecture is open. This mission takes the CM claim as its target.

Setting

Let ppp be a prime and K\mathbb{K}K a number field with ring of integers O(K)\mathcal{O}(\mathbb{K})O(K) and units E=O(K)×E = \mathcal{O}(\mathbb{K})^\timesE=O(K)×.

Let P={℘⊂O(K):(p)⊂℘}P = \{\wp \subset \mathcal{O}(\mathbb{K}) : (p) \subset \wp\}P={℘⊂O(K):(p)⊂℘} be the set of primes above ppp, a finite set. For ℘∈P\wp \in P℘∈P write K℘\mathbb{K}_\wpK℘​ for the completion and O℘\mathcal{O}_\wpO℘​ for its valuation ring. Set

U  =  ∏℘∈PO℘×,U \;=\; \prod_{\wp \in P} \mathcal{O}_\wp^{\times},U=℘∈P∏​O℘×​,

the group of semilocal units at ppp, and let

ι:E⟶U\iota : E \longrightarrow Uι:E⟶U

be the diagonal embedding, whose ℘\wp℘-component is the completion map. Define the ppp-adic closure of the global units

Eˉ  =  ⋂n>0ι(E)⋅Upn  ⊆  U,\bar{E} \;=\; \bigcap_{n > 0} \iota(E) \cdot U^{p^n} \;\subseteq\; U ,Eˉ=n>0⋂​ι(E)⋅Upn⊆U,

where Upn={upn:u∈U}U^{p^n} = \{u^{p^n} : u \in U\}Upn={upn:u∈U} and the product of the two subgroups is taken inside the abelian group UUU. Finally, the Leopoldt defect of K\mathbb{K}K at ppp is

DL(K)  =  Z-rk(E)  −  Zp-rk(Eˉ),\mathcal{D}_L(\mathbb{K}) \;=\; \mathbb{Z}\text{-rk}(E) \;-\; \mathbb{Z}_p\text{-rk}(\bar{E}),DL​(K)=Z-rk(E)−Zp​-rk(Eˉ),

the difference between Dirichlet's unit rank r1+r2−1r_1 + r_2 - 1r1​+r2​−1 and the free Zp\mathbb{Z}_pZp​-rank of Eˉ\bar{E}Eˉ. The defect is always non-negative, and it is positive exactly when units that are independent over Z\mathbb{Z}Z satisfy a ppp-adic relation after the diagonal embedding.

A number field K\mathbb{K}K is CM when it is a totally complex quadratic extension of its maximal real subfield K+\mathbb{K}^+K+. For CM fields a positive defect is equivalent to the vanishing of the ppp-adic regulator of K\mathbb{K}K.

Formalization targets

Goal — Leopoldt's conjecture for CM fields at odd ppp

p odd prime,K/Q CM⟹DL(K)=0.p \text{ odd prime}, \quad \mathbb{K}/\mathbb{Q} \text{ CM} \quad \Longrightarrow \quad \mathcal{D}_L(\mathbb{K}) = 0 .p odd prime,K/Q CM⟹DL​(K)=0.

This is Theorem 1 of arXiv:1105.4544. It fixes no constants and no auxiliary choices, so it is stable under any later improvement of the argument.

Supporting targets

DL(K)=0for K/Q abelian(Brumer, 1967)\mathcal{D}_L(\mathbb{K}) = 0 \quad \text{for } \mathbb{K}/\mathbb{Q} \text{ abelian} \qquad \text{(Brumer, 1967)}DL​(K)=0for K/Q abelian(Brumer, 1967) DL(K)≤r/2,r=Z-rk(E)(Waldschmidt, 1981)\mathcal{D}_L(\mathbb{K}) \le r/2, \quad r = \mathbb{Z}\text{-rk}(E) \qquad \text{(Waldschmidt, 1981)}DL​(K)≤r/2,r=Z-rk(E)(Waldschmidt, 1981) DL(F)>0⟹DL(K)>0for every finite K/F\mathcal{D}_L(\mathbb{F}) > 0 \quad \Longrightarrow \quad \mathcal{D}_L(\mathbb{K}) > 0 \quad \text{for every finite } \mathbb{K}/\mathbb{F}DL​(F)>0⟹DL​(K)>0for every finite K/F

The last is Remark 1.A of the source, attributed there to Laurent: a defect is inherited by finite extensions, because the ppp-adic relations among Z\mathbb{Z}Z-generators of the units are preserved under the embedding of unit groups.

Significance

The result itself. Leopoldt's conjecture for CM fields would pin down Gal(Ω(K)/K)≅Zp r2+1\mathrm{Gal}(\Omega(\mathbb{K})/\mathbb{K}) \cong \mathbb{Z}_p^{\,r_2+1}Gal(Ω(K)/K)≅Zpr2​+1​ for every CM field and, via the totally real subfield, would rule out non-cyclotomic Zp\mathbb{Z}_pZp​-extensions of the totally real fields underlying them. It would remove a standing hypothesis from results in Iwasawa theory and ppp-adic LLL-functions that are currently stated conditionally on Leopoldt. Without it, the Zp\mathbb{Z}_pZp​-rank of the ppp-ramified Galois group is only known to lie in a range.

Formalizing it. Nothing in this area is formalized today. Mathlib has Dirichlet's unit theorem, the archimedean regulator, CM fields, and the completions of a number field at its finite places, but no ppp-adic regulator, no ppp-adic logarithm, and no Iwasawa theory. This mission first pins down a machine-checked statement of the conjecture itself — which is where the mathematical content of Theorem 1 sits, since the theorem is one sentence long — and then attacks it. Because the target is an unrefereed argument, a serious attempt to formalize it is also a test of it: a step that cannot be closed localizes a gap, and a milestone that turns out to be unprovable is itself the finding.

Difficulty

The obvious approach is transcendence theory, and it is the one that works in the abelian case: a ppp-adic relation among units is a vanishing linear form in ppp-adic logarithms of algebraic numbers, and Baker-type lower bounds forbid it. This is exactly Ax's reduction and Brumer's theorem. It stalls immediately beyond abelian fields, because the argument needs units whose Galois structure is explicit — for abelian fields the cyclotomic units supply them, and in general nothing does. Waldschmidt's DL≤r/2\mathcal{D}_L \le r/2DL​≤r/2 is the limit of what the transcendence route has delivered in general, and it has not been improved by that route. The source therefore abandons transcendence entirely and argues in Iwasawa theory, constructing a CM Zp\mathbb{Z}_pZp​-extension of a field where the conjecture is assumed to fail and deriving a contradiction from the classes of primes that split completely in it. That route needs the structure theory of Λ\LambdaΛ-modules, μ\muμ- and λ\lambdaλ-invariants, Tate cohomology of class group limits, and the vanishing of μ\muμ — none of which exists in Lean.

Formalization scope

The development commits to the following conventions, all of them visible in the definition file.

PPP is the subtype of height-one primes ℘\wp℘ of O(K)\mathcal{O}(\mathbb{K})O(K) with p∈℘p \in \wpp∈℘, and carries a Finite instance. UUU is the dependent product over PPP of the unit groups of the valuation rings adicCompletionIntegers, so it is a commutative topological group. Eˉ\bar{E}Eˉ is defined by the intersection displayed above rather than as a topological closure: the source gives both descriptions, and the intersection is the one that needs no choice of topology on ∏℘K℘\prod_\wp \mathbb{K}_\wp∏℘​K℘​. The two can differ by a finite subgroup, which does not affect the Zp\mathbb{Z}_pZp​-rank.

Zp-rk(Eˉ)\mathbb{Z}_p\text{-rk}(\bar{E})Zp​-rk(Eˉ) is defined as the largest n≤[K:Q]n \le [\mathbb{K}:\mathbb{Q}]n≤[K:Q] for which Zpn\mathbb{Z}_p^nZpn​ admits a continuous injective homomorphism into Eˉ\bar{E}Eˉ. Continuity is not decoration: as abstract groups Zpn\mathbb{Z}_p^nZpn​ embeds into Zp\mathbb{Z}_pZp​ for every nnn, so the topological requirement is what makes the rank the intended one; and since Zpn\mathbb{Z}_p^nZpn​ is compact and UUU is Hausdorff, such an injection is automatically a closed embedding. For a closed subgroup of UUU, which is isomorphic to a finite group times Zpd\mathbb{Z}_p^dZpd​, such injections exist exactly for n≤dn \le dn≤d. The cut-off at [K:Q][\mathbb{K}:\mathbb{Q}][K:Q] is carried only so that the supremum ranges over a visibly bounded set of naturals rather than falling back on a junk value; since the Zp\mathbb{Z}_pZp​-rank of the whole semilocal unit group UUU is already [K:Q][\mathbb{K}:\mathbb{Q}][K:Q], it never binds.

The defect subtracts in N\mathbb{N}N, hence truncates. Since the Zp\mathbb{Z}_pZp​-rank never exceeds the Z\mathbb{Z}Z-rank, truncation is never triggered and DL(K)=0\mathcal{D}_L(\mathbb{K}) = 0DL​(K)=0 is equivalent to the two ranks being equal.

One trivializing formalization is worth ruling out. The goal is not vacuous: it is neither provable nor refutable by unfolding the definitions, and it has genuine content whenever Z-rk(E)>0\mathbb{Z}\text{-rk}(E) > 0Z-rk(E)>0, that is for every CM field other than the imaginary quadratic ones, where Dirichlet's rank is 000 and the statement is trivially true.

A complete development needs, beyond what Mathlib supplies: the ppp-adic logarithm on the units of a local field and the resulting ppp-adic regulator; the Iwasawa algebra acting on inverse limits of ppp-class groups along a Zp\mathbb{Z}_pZp​-extension, with μ\muμ- and λ\lambdaλ-invariants and the decomposition of Definition 1 of the source; CM Zp\mathbb{Z}_pZp​-extensions; and Tate cohomology of these modules. All of that is reusable well beyond this mission — it is the missing foundation of Iwasawa theory in Lean. Contributions of any of these pieces as definitions, and of the three supporting targets as theorems, are welcome independently of the goal.

Selected references

  • P. Mihăilescu, On CM Zp\mathbb{Z}_pZp​-extensions and the Leopoldt conjecture for CM fields, arXiv:1105.4544 (2011–2016). https://arxiv.org/abs/1105.4544
  • H. Leopoldt, Zur Arithmetik in Abelschen Zahlkörpern, J. reine angew. Math. 209 (1962), 54–71. https://doi.org/10.1515/crll.1962.209.54
  • A. Brumer, On the units of algebraic number fields, Mathematika 14 (1967), 121–124. https://doi.org/10.1112/S0025579300003703
  • J. Ax, On the units of an algebraic number field, Illinois J. Math. 9 (1965), 584–589. https://doi.org/10.1215/ijm/1256059299
  • A. Baker, Linear forms in the logarithms of algebraic numbers I, II, III, Mathematika 13–14 (1966–67).
  • M. Waldschmidt, Transcendance et exponentielles en plusieurs variables, Invent. Math. 63 (1981), 97–127. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01389194
  • M. Emsalem, H. Kisilevsky, D. Wales, Indépendance linéaire sur Q‾\overline{\mathbb{Q}}Q​ de logarithmes ppp-adiques de nombres algébriques et rang ppp-adique du groupe des unités d'un corps de nombres, J. Number Theory 19 (1984), 384–391. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-314X(84)90040-1
  • R. Greenberg, On the Iwasawa invariants of totally real fields, Amer. J. Math. 98 (1976), 263–284. https://doi.org/10.2307/2373625
  • K. Iwasawa, On Zℓ\mathbb{Z}_\ellZℓ​-extensions of number fields, Ann. of Math. 98 (1973), 246–326. https://doi.org/10.2307/1970784
  • M. Laurent, Rang ppp-adique d'unités et action de groupes, J. reine angew. Math. 399 (1989), 81–108. https://doi.org/10.1515/crll.1989.399.81
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Number Theory·Captain: mysticflounder

Collatz ConjectureOpen Problem

Motivation and history

The Collatz conjecture, also called the 3x+13x+13x+1 problem, asks whether one elementary iteration rule has the same long-term behavior for every positive integer. It belongs to number theory and discrete dynamical systems: the rule is deterministic and trivial to compute for any fixed input, but no argument is known that controls every orbit. The problem has served as a test case for methods involving congruences, stopping times, probabilistic models, computation, and arithmetic dynamics. Jeffrey Lagarias's survey, The 3x+13x+13x+1 Problem and Its Generalizations, organized much of the classical theory and explains why strong results about large classes of starting values do not settle the universal statement (Lagarias 1985).

The problem has a long record of partial results. By 1985, the literature already included results on stopping-time densities, possible cycles, and divergent trajectories, summarized by Lagarias. In 2019, Terence Tao proved that for every function f(N)f(N)f(N) tending to infinity, the minimum value attained by the orbit of NNN is at most f(N)f(N)f(N) for almost all positive integers NNN, where “almost all” is measured using logarithmic density (Tao 2019). This is a strong statement about typical orbits, but it does not cover every starting value. Computational verification has also been pushed to very large finite ranges; David Barina describes algorithms and verification methods for this task in Convergence Verification of the Collatz Problem (Barina 2021). A finite verification bound, regardless of size, leaves all larger starting values outside its scope.

Setting

For a natural number nnn, define the Collatz step C(n)C(n)C(n) by

C(n)={n/2,if n is even,3n+1,if n is odd.C(n)= \begin{cases} n/2, & \text{if } n \text{ is even},\\ 3n+1, & \text{if } n \text{ is odd}. \end{cases}C(n)={n/2,3n+1,​if n is even,if n is odd.​

Write Cm(n)C^m(n)Cm(n) for the result of applying CCC exactly mmm times, with C0(n)=nC^0(n)=nC0(n)=n. The forward orbit of nnn is therefore

n, C(n), C2(n), C3(n),….n,\ C(n),\ C^2(n),\ C^3(n),\ldots.n, C(n), C2(n), C3(n),….

The familiar orbit beginning at 666, for example, starts 6,3,10,5,16,8,4,2,16,3,10,5,16,8,4,2,16,3,10,5,16,8,4,2,1. Reaching 111 is the relevant event; after that point the usual map continues around the cycle 1,4,2,11,4,2,11,4,2,1.

Formalization target

The mission goal is the universal assertion

∀n∈N,n>0⟹∃m∈N,Cm(n)=1.\forall n\in\mathbb N,\quad n>0\Longrightarrow \exists m\in\mathbb N,\quad C^m(n)=1.∀n∈N,n>0⟹∃m∈N,Cm(n)=1.

The existential index mmm may be zero, so the case n=1n=1n=1 is included directly. The hypothesis n>0n>0n>0 excludes 000, whose behavior under the total natural-number definition of CCC is irrelevant to the conjecture.

The goal is the existing public prove2.me theorem collatz_conjecture, rather than a new copy. Its statement follows the Collatz declaration in the Formal Conjectures collection.

Significance

A proof would classify every positive-integer orbit with respect to reaching 111. It would simultaneously rule out an orbit that escapes forever without visiting 111 and any nontrivial cycle disjoint from 111. Partial density results and finite computations establish neither universal exclusion.

The formalization goal is to make the universal quantifiers, parity split, finite iteration, and boundary cases explicit in Lean 4. Supporting contributions can isolate reusable facts about iterates, stopping times, accelerated odd-only maps, residue classes, and finite certificates. Such components may also support formal work on related piecewise-affine integer dynamical systems, while every contribution remains tied to a precisely stated theorem.

Difficulty

Individual trajectories can be computed, and many families of inputs can be reduced by elementary parity arguments, but the map combines contraction and expansion. Even steps halve the current value, while odd steps replace it by the larger value 3n+13n+13n+1. Local information about a bounded initial segment of an orbit does not supply a uniform bound on all later values or on the time required to reach 111.

Statistical control of most inputs also leaves exceptional inputs unresolved. Likewise, excluding cycles up to a finite length does not exclude longer cycles, and checking all inputs below a finite threshold does not constrain every larger input. The mission therefore requires statements whose quantifiers genuinely cover all positive natural numbers; a large finite computation or an almost-everywhere theorem cannot by itself close the goal.

Formalization scope

The existing Lean statement works over ℕ. Its local collatzStep definition branches on the proposition that nnn is even, uses natural-number division by 222 on the even branch, and uses 3n+13n+13n+1 on the odd branch. Iteration is represented by the standard finite function iterate notation. The theorem quantifies over a positive starting value nnn and asserts the existence of a finite iterate index mmm at which the value is exactly 111.

The positivity hypothesis is essential: the total function sends 000 to 000, so including 000 would make the universal statement false. The mission does not replace the universal quantifier by a fixed numerical bound, and it does not encode a predetermined stopping-time limit. A complete solution must account for every positive starting value.

Useful supporting formalizations include exact relations between the classical and accelerated maps, composition laws for finite iteration, stopping-time predicates, cycle exclusion statements, descent criteria, and checked finite ranges. Each supporting theorem should state its own hypotheses and trust boundary explicitly. Computational artifacts are welcome when their finite scope is stated precisely and their result is connected to a Lean consumer through a checked certificate or another accepted verification boundary.

Selected references

  • Jeffrey C. Lagarias, The 3x+13x+13x+1 Problem and Its Generalizations, American Mathematical Monthly 92 (1985), 3–23. https://websites.umich.edu/~lagarias/3x%2B1.html
  • Terence Tao, Almost All Orbits of the Collatz Map Attain Almost Bounded Values, 2019; published in Forum of Mathematics, Pi 10 (2022). https://arxiv.org/abs/1909.03562
  • David Barina, Convergence Verification of the Collatz Problem, The Journal of Supercomputing 77 (2021), 2681–2688. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11227-020-03368-x
  • Google DeepMind, Formal Conjectures: Collatz Conjecture, Lean 4 statement. https://github.com/google-deepmind/formal-conjectures/blob/main/FormalConjectures/Wikipedia/CollatzConjecture.lean
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Operations ResearchTheoretical Computer Science·Captain: Shuze Chen

The k-Server ConjectureOpen Problem

Motivation

The kkk-server problem was introduced by Manasse, McGeoch, and Sleator (STOC 1988 / J. Algorithms 1990) as a common generalization of paging, weighted caching, and related sequential decision problems, and their kkk-server conjecture has since become the central open question of competitive analysis. The conjecture asserts that a single ratio — exactly kkk — governs deterministic online server management on every metric space.

Timeline

  • 1985. Sleator and Tarjan introduce competitive analysis — an online algorithm judged against the offline optimum on every input — for list update and paging, and ask for a theory of such guarantees.
  • 1988–1990. Manasse, McGeoch, and Sleator introduce the kkk-server problem (STOC 1988; J. Algorithms 1990) and settle its extremes: no deterministic algorithm beats ratio kkk on any space with more than kkk points (Corollary 7), two servers admit a 222-competitive algorithm (Theorem 5, algorithm RES), and kkk servers on k+1k+1k+1 points admit a kkk-competitive one (Theorem 4, algorithm BAL). Section 8 poses the kkk-server conjecture, in the symmetric finite setting of the paper.
  • 1990. Fiat, Rabani, and Ravid (FOCS 1990) give the first competitive ratio depending on kkk alone — exponential in kkk, but finite on every metric space.
  • 1991. Chrobak, Karloff, Payne, and Vishwanathan (SIAM J. Discrete Math.) prove the conjecture on the real line via Double Coverage; Chrobak and Larmore (SIAM J. Comput.) extend it to all tree metrics.
  • 1995. Koutsoupias and Papadimitriou (J. ACM) prove the Work Function Algorithm is (2k−1)(2k-1)(2k−1)-competitive on every metric space — the breakthrough, and still the best general bound. Their Conjecture 1.1 fixes the conjecture's modern form: for every metric space there is an online algorithm with competitive ratio kkk.
  • 1996. The same authors verify the conjecture on spaces of k+2k+2k+2 points via the dual 2-evader problem (Inf. Process. Lett. 57).
  • 2004. Bartal and Koutsoupias prove the WFA itself is kkk-competitive on the line, weighted stars, and all spaces of k+2k+2k+2 points.
  • 2021. Coester and Koutsoupias (ICALP) give a unifying potential for all known WFA analyses and push the frontier to the circle.
  • 2023. Bubeck, Coester, and Rabani (STOC) refute the randomized analogue: no o(log⁡2k)o(\log^2 k)o(log2k)-competitive randomized algorithm exists in general. The deterministic conjecture — this mission's goal — survives as the central open question, with the gap between kkk and 2k−12k-12k−1 unmoved since 1995.
  • 2026. Coester, Koutsoupias, and Zbysiński post The kkk-server conjecture is true (arXiv:2609.15979), a claimed proof of the full conjecture: the Work Function Algorithm itself is kkk-competitive on every metric space, via a matrix representation of work functions and a potential function built on it. The preprint is not yet peer-reviewed; this mission's goal stays open until a machine-checked proof exists.

Setting

Fix a metric space MMM with distance function ddd, and a number of servers k≥1k \ge 1k≥1. A configuration records where the kkk servers stand: it is a function CCC assigning to each server i∈{1,…,k}i \in \{1, \dots, k\}i∈{1,…,k} a point C(i)∈MC(i) \in MC(i)∈M. Moving the servers from configuration CCC to configuration C′C'C′ means server iii travels from C(i)C(i)C(i) to C′(i)C'(i)C′(i); the movement cost is the total distance traveled,

moveCost(C,C′)  =  ∑i=1kd(C(i), C′(i)).\mathrm{moveCost}(C, C') \;=\; \sum_{i=1}^{k} d\bigl(C(i),\, C'(i)\bigr).moveCost(C,C′)=i=1∑k​d(C(i),C′(i)).

A request sequence is a finite list σ=(r1,…,rn)\sigma = (r_1, \dots, r_n)σ=(r1​,…,rn​) of points of MMM, presented one at a time; write σ≤j=(r1,…,rj)\sigma_{\le j} = (r_1, \dots, r_j)σ≤j​=(r1​,…,rj​) for the list of the first jjj requests (so σ≤0\sigma_{\le 0}σ≤0​ is the empty list).

A deterministic online algorithm AAA is a rule that, for every finite request sequence ℓ\ellℓ, specifies a configuration A(ℓ)A(\ell)A(ℓ) — where the servers stand after serving the requests of ℓ\ellℓ in order. In particular A(empty list)A(\text{empty list})A(empty list) is the initial configuration, before any request arrives. Two points about this way of modeling an algorithm:

  • Online and deterministic, by construction. The configuration after jjj requests is A(σ≤j)A(\sigma_{\le j})A(σ≤j​), a function of those first jjj requests only — the algorithm cannot see the future, and makes no random choices.
  • The service constraint. Whenever a request sequence ends with a request rrr, some server must stand at rrr immediately after: for every list ℓ\ellℓ and every point rrr, the configuration reached after serving ℓ\ellℓ followed by rrr places at least one server at the point rrr.

Running AAA on σ=(r1,…,rn)\sigma = (r_1, \dots, r_n)σ=(r1​,…,rn​) produces the configurations A(σ≤0), A(σ≤1), …, A(σ≤n)A(\sigma_{\le 0}),\, A(\sigma_{\le 1}),\, \dots,\, A(\sigma_{\le n})A(σ≤0​),A(σ≤1​),…,A(σ≤n​), and its cost is the total movement along this trajectory:

costA(σ)  =  ∑j=1nmoveCost(A(σ≤j−1), A(σ≤j)).\mathrm{cost}_A(\sigma) \;=\; \sum_{j=1}^{n} \mathrm{moveCost}\bigl(A(\sigma_{\le j-1}),\, A(\sigma_{\le j})\bigr).costA​(σ)=j=1∑n​moveCost(A(σ≤j−1​),A(σ≤j​)).

For comparison, an offline schedule for σ\sigmaσ starting at a configuration C0C_0C0​ is any sequence of configurations S0=C0,S1,…,SnS_0 = C_0, S_1, \dots, S_nS0​=C0​,S1​,…,Sn​ in which SjS_jSj​ places a server at the request rjr_jrj​, for each jjj — chosen with the whole of σ\sigmaσ known in advance. The optimal offline cost OPT(C0,σ)\mathrm{OPT}(C_0, \sigma)OPT(C0​,σ) is the infimum, over all such schedules, of the total movement ∑j=1nmoveCost(Sj−1,Sj)\sum_{j=1}^{n} \mathrm{moveCost}(S_{j-1}, S_j)∑j=1n​moveCost(Sj−1​,Sj​).

Finally, AAA is ccc-competitive if there is a constant aaa — depending on the algorithm, hence possibly on the metric space and the initial configuration, but never on the request sequence — with

costA(σ)  ≤  c⋅OPT(A(empty list), σ)+afor every request sequence σ.\mathrm{cost}_A(\sigma) \;\le\; c \cdot \mathrm{OPT}\bigl(A(\text{empty list}),\, \sigma\bigr) + a \qquad \text{for every request sequence } \sigma.costA​(σ)≤c⋅OPT(A(empty list),σ)+afor every request sequence σ.

Formalization targets

Goal — the kkk-server conjecture

For every k≥1, every metric space M, and every initial configuration C0: ∃ A starting at C0 that is k-competitive.\text{For every } k \ge 1,\ \text{every metric space } M,\ \text{and every initial configuration } C_0:\ \exists\, A \text{ starting at } C_0 \text{ that is } k\text{-competitive.}For every k≥1, every metric space M, and every initial configuration C0​: ∃A starting at C0​ that is k-competitive.

The goal fixes no algorithm: any kkk-competitive construction settles it. This is the weakest stable form of the conjecture — it survives every improvement in constants or techniques short of a disproof.

Milestones — the known ladder

The milestones are the classical results between the trivial and the conjectured, each an existence or impossibility statement over the same definitions: the lower bound c≥kc \ge kc≥k on any space with at least k+1k+1k+1 points; the conjecture for k=2k = 2k=2; for spaces of exactly k+1k+1k+1 points; for the real line; the (2k−1)(2k-1)(2k−1) upper bound of the Work Function Algorithm on every space; the conjecture for spaces of exactly k+2k+2k+2 points; the conjecture for three servers in the Manhattan plane (R2,ℓ1)(\mathbb{R}^2, \ell^1)(R2,ℓ1) — the one settled case over a genuinely two-dimensional continuum (Bein–Chrobak–Larmore 2002; reproved by the unifying potential of Coester–Koutsoupias 2021); Coester–Koutsoupias's 2021 result that the Work Function Algorithm itself — not just some algorithm — is 333-competitive for three servers on trees, stated over an explicit formalization of the WFA; and the 2023 Bubeck–Coester–Rabani refutation of the randomized analogue: there are (k+1)(k+1)(k+1)-point spaces on which every randomized algorithm is Ω(log⁡2k)\Omega(\log^2 k)Ω(log2k)-competitive, stated over a mixed-strategy model of randomized online algorithms.

Significance

A proof of the conjecture would close the founding problem of competitive analysis and pin down the exact power of determinism in online optimization over arbitrary metrics; a disproof would separate general metric spaces from every special class where the ratio kkk is known tight. Either outcome recalibrates the field's standard model of adversarial request sequences.

None of these results — not even the lower bound — has a machine-checked proof, and online algorithms as a subject are absent from Mathlib. This mission builds the base layer: a faithful model of online service systems (configurations, online algorithms as prefix functions, offline schedules, competitiveness), the classical possibility and impossibility results over it, and, at the top, the Koutsoupias–Papadimitriou bound, whose potential-function argument is self-contained but delicate. The model is reusable for paging, weighted caching, metrical task systems, and the randomized kkk-server problem.

Difficulty

The obvious first idea — the greedy algorithm, moving the nearest server to each request — is not competitive for any constant, already on three points of the line: two nearby points can ping-pong one server forever while a server parked slightly farther away never moves. Every known competitive algorithm must sometimes move a server other than the nearest one, and the whole difficulty of the conjecture is quantifying exactly how much such foresight-free hedging can achieve. The Work Function Algorithm's analysis via a potential over offline work functions loses a factor of two for reasons nobody has been able to remove; on the lower-bound side, no metric space is known where the deterministic ratio exceeds kkk.

Formalization scope

The Lean model commits to: configurations as functions Fin k → M (labeled servers — equivalent in cost to the unlabeled multiset model, since offline can permute labels for free); algorithms as total functions List M → (Fin k → M) with the service constraint, so a step may move several servers (the standard laziness reduction makes this equivalent to one-move-per-request); costs in ℝ via Metric.dist; the offline optimum as an sInf over schedules, which agrees with the attained minimum on finite spaces; and the additive-constant form of competitiveness, quantified as ∃ a, ∀ σ.

Two conventions guard against trivialization. The additive constant is quantified before the request sequence — allowing it to depend on σ\sigmaσ would make every algorithm 111-competitive. And the lower-bound milestone requires k+1k+1k+1 distinct points (Finset.card = k + 1); on spaces with at most kkk points the conjecture is trivially true and the lower bound false.

Three further definitional layers extend the model. The work function workFunction C₀ σ C is the sInf of (schedule cost + final move to C) over schedules serving σ from C₀, and the Work Function Algorithm WFA is defined on finite spaces with k ≥ 1 servers: after each request it moves to a configuration containing the request minimizing (movement cost) + (work function of the history including the request), a minimizer existing by finiteness and ties broken by a fixed arbitrary choice — matching the standard definition with its "ties broken arbitrarily" (our fixed choice is one admissible instance). A tree is a finite metric space carrying a tree graph whose weighted path lengths realize the metric — exactly "the set of vertices of a tree" of the sources. A randomized algorithm is a mixed strategy: a probability measure over an index type together with a deterministic algorithm per outcome and measurable per-sequence cost; its expected cost is a lower Lebesgue integral in [0,∞][0,\infty][0,∞], and ccc-competitiveness from C0C_0C0​ demands every outcome start at C0C_0C0​ and one additive constant work for all request sequences.

Welcome contributions: proofs of any milestone in any order (the lower bound and the (k+1)(k+1)(k+1)-point case are the natural entry points); alternative algorithms for milestones already closed; and infrastructure lemmas about moveCost, schedules, and work functions published as reusable platform theorems.

Selected references

  • M. Manasse, L. McGeoch, D. Sleator, Competitive algorithms for server problems, J. Algorithms 11 (1990). doi:10.1016/0196-6774(90)90003-W
  • A. Fiat, Y. Rabani, Y. Ravid, Competitive k-server algorithms, FOCS 1990. doi:10.1109/FSCS.1990.89566
  • M. Chrobak, H. Karloff, T. Payne, S. Vishwanathan, New results on server problems, SIAM J. Discrete Math. 4 (1991). doi:10.1137/0404017
  • M. Chrobak, L. Larmore, An optimal on-line algorithm for k servers on trees, SIAM J. Comput. 20 (1991). doi:10.1137/0220008
  • E. Koutsoupias, C. Papadimitriou, On the k-server conjecture, J. ACM 42 (1995). doi:10.1145/210118.210128
  • E. Koutsoupias, C. Papadimitriou, The 2-evader problem, Inf. Process. Lett. 57(5) (1996), 249–252.
  • C. Coester, E. Koutsoupias, Towards the k-server conjecture: a unifying potential, pushing the frontier to the circle, ICALP 2021. arXiv:2102.10474
  • S. Bubeck, C. Coester, Y. Rabani, The randomized k-server conjecture is false!, STOC 2023. arXiv:2211.05753
  • E. Koutsoupias, The k-server problem (survey), Computer Science Review 3 (2009). doi:10.1016/j.cosrev.2009.04.002
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Complexity TheoryOperations ResearchOptimization·Captain: mikedeng1

Multi-purchase Behavior: Modeling, Estimation, and Optimization: Revenue Maximization under the BundleMVL-2 Multi-Purchase Choice Model Is NP-CompleteResearch Paper

Motivation

Recommendation platforms and online retailers choose which products to show a customer, and customers often buy more than one of them in a single visit. Classical choice models such as the multinomial logit (MNL) assume a customer buys at most one product, and under MNL the revenue-maximizing set of products to display is easy to find: it is one of the nnn revenue-ordered sets, so it can be found in linear time. Tulabandhula, Sinha, Karra and Patidar (arXiv:2006.08055, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 2023) introduce the BundleMVL-K model, a multivariate logit model in which a customer buys a bundle of up to KKK products, with pairwise interaction terms that capture complementarity and substitution. They estimate it on retail data and design algorithms for choosing the recommendation set.

The first question for any such model is whether the revenue problem stays tractable once purchases of two products are allowed. Theorem 1 of the paper answers it negatively: already for K=2K=2K=2 the unconstrained revenue problem is NP-complete. This mission formalizes that theorem and its proof, a reduction from Max-Cut.

Setting

The products are W={1,…,n}W=\{1,\dots,n\}W={1,…,n}. Product iii has a revenue ri>0r_i>0ri​>0. A BundleMVL-2 instance assigns a nonnegative weight V{i}V_{\{i\}}V{i}​ to every product and V{i,j}V_{\{i,j\}}V{i,j}​ to every unordered pair of products, together with a no-purchase weight v0>0v_0>0v0​>0. (In the paper VS=exp⁡(∑i∈Sαi+∑i<j∈Sβij)V_S=\exp(\sum_{i\in S}\alpha_i+\sum_{i<j\in S}\beta_{ij})VS​=exp(∑i∈S​αi​+∑i<j∈S​βij​), and βij=−∞\beta_{ij}=-\inftyβij​=−∞, so V{i,j}=0V_{\{i,j\}}=0V{i,j}​=0, is allowed.) A customer shown the recommendation set C⊆WC\subseteq WC⊆W buys the nonempty bundle S⊆CS\subseteq CS⊆C, ∣S∣≤2|S|\le 2∣S∣≤2, with probability VS/(v0+∑S′VS′)V_S/(v_0+\sum_{S'}V_{S'})VS​/(v0​+∑S′​VS′​), and buys nothing with probability v0/(v0+∑S′VS′)v_0/(v_0+\sum_{S'}V_{S'})v0​/(v0​+∑S′​VS′​). The expected revenue of CCC is eq. (4),

R2(C)=∑i∈CriV{i}+∑i∈C∑j∈C, j>i(ri+rj)V{i,j}v0+∑i∈CV{i}+∑i∈C∑j∈C, j>iV{i,j}.R_2(C)=\frac{\sum_{i\in C} r_iV_{\{i\}}+\sum_{i\in C}\sum_{j\in C,\,j>i}(r_i+r_j)V_{\{i,j\}}}{v_0+\sum_{i\in C}V_{\{i\}}+\sum_{i\in C}\sum_{j\in C,\,j>i}V_{\{i,j\}}}.R2​(C)=v0​+∑i∈C​V{i}​+∑i∈C​∑j∈C,j>i​V{i,j}​∑i∈C​ri​V{i}​+∑i∈C​∑j∈C,j>i​(ri​+rj​)V{i,j}​​.

With the indicator xiCx^C_ixiC​ of CCC, the weights θii=V{i}\theta_{ii}=V_{\{i\}}θii​=V{i}​, θij=V{i,j}/2\theta_{ij}=V_{\{i,j\}}/2θij​=V{i,j}​/2 (i≠ji\ne ji=j) and the revenues r^ii=ri\hat r_{ii}=r_ir^ii​=ri​, r^ij=ri+rj\hat r_{ij}=r_i+r_jr^ij​=ri​+rj​ (i≠ji\ne ji=j), both numerator and denominator are quadratic forms in xCx^CxC.

The revenue problem (5) is max⁡C⊆WR2(C)\max_{C\subseteq W}R_2(C)maxC⊆W​R2​(C); its decision version asks, for a threshold κ\kappaκ, whether some CCC has R2(C)≥κR_2(C)\ge\kappaR2​(C)≥κ. SIMPLE MAX CUT asks, for a simple graph GGG and an integer MMM, whether the nodes of GGG split into two parts with at least MMM edges between them.

Formalization targets

Goal: Theorem 1

SIMPLE MAX CUT is NP-complete ⟹ BundleMVL-2-DEC is NP-complete.\text{SIMPLE MAX CUT is NP-complete}\ \Longrightarrow\ \text{BundleMVL-2-DEC is NP-complete}.SIMPLE MAX CUT is NP-complete ⟹ BundleMVL-2-DEC is NP-complete.

NP-completeness is in the sense of Cook's Definition 4: membership in NP and a polynomial-time many-one reduction from every NP language.

Milestones

  1. Eq. (4), second form: R2(C)=∑i,jr^ijθijxiCxjCv0+∑i,jθijxiCxjCR_2(C)=\dfrac{\sum_{i,j}\hat r_{ij}\theta_{ij}x^C_ix^C_j}{v_0+\sum_{i,j}\theta_{ij}x^C_ix^C_j}R2​(C)=v0​+∑i,j​θij​xiC​xjC​∑i,j​r^ij​θij​xiC​xjC​​.
  2. Compare-Step: max⁡CR2(C)≥κ  ⟺  max⁡C∑i,jθijxiCxjC(r^ij−κ)≥κv0\max_C R_2(C)\ge\kappa\iff\max_C\sum_{i,j}\theta_{ij}x^C_ix^C_j(\hat r_{ij}-\kappa)\ge\kappa v_0maxC​R2​(C)≥κ⟺maxC​∑i,j​θij​xiC​xjC​(r^ij​−κ)≥κv0​.
  3. Problem (7) is Max-Cut: for Q=(0d⊤/2d/2−A′)Q=\begin{pmatrix}0&\mathbf d^\top/2\\ \mathbf d/2&-A'\end{pmatrix}Q=(0d/2​d⊤/2−A′​), the objective ∑i,jqijxiCxjC\sum_{i,j}q_{ij}x^C_ix^C_j∑i,j​qij​xiC​xjC​ never decreases when the hub 000 is added to CCC, and equals the size of the cut (C∖{0}, rest)(C\setminus\{0\},\ \text{rest})(C∖{0}, rest) when 0∈C0\in C0∈C.
  4. The θ\thetaθ transformation: with r0>κr_0>\kappar0​>κ and κ/2>r1>⋯>rm>0\kappa/2>r_1>\dots>r_m>0κ/2>r1​>⋯>rm​>0, θij=qij/(ri+rj−κ)\theta_{ij}=q_{ij}/(r_i+r_j-\kappa)θij​=qij​/(ri​+rj​−κ) is nonnegative and θij(ri+rj−κ)=qij\theta_{ij}(r_i+r_j-\kappa)=q_{ij}θij​(ri​+rj​−κ)=qij​.
  5. Reduction correctness: GGG has a cut of size ≥M\ge M≥M iff the constructed instance (κ=1\kappa=1κ=1, v0=Mv_0=Mv0​=M) has some CCC with R2(C)≥1R_2(C)\ge 1R2​(C)≥1.
  6. Hardness half: SIMPLE MAX CUT≤pBundleMVL-2-DEC\text{SIMPLE MAX CUT}\le_p\text{BundleMVL-2-DEC}SIMPLE MAX CUT≤p​BundleMVL-2-DEC.
  7. Membership half: BundleMVL-2-DEC∈NP\text{BundleMVL-2-DEC}\in\mathrm{NP}BundleMVL-2-DEC∈NP.

Significance

The result. Theorem 1 separates the multi-purchase model from its single-purchase counterpart: the revenue-ordered structure that makes MNL assortment optimization linear-time fails once pairs can be bought, and no polynomial-time exact algorithm exists unless P = NP. This is what justifies the paper's design of exact algorithms without running-time guarantees (a noisy binary search over the Compare-Step) and of polynomial-time heuristics, and it places BundleMVL-2 next to other hard assortment problems such as the mixture of two multinomial logits (Rusmevichientong et al. 2010, as cited by the paper) and the MMC model of Benson, Kumar and Tomkins (2018), whose hardness is the paper's Theorem 2.

Formalizing it. The theorem is proved in the paper; no machine-checked proof exists. The paper's argument constructs the instance and asserts the equivalence; it does not argue NP membership or the polynomial running time of the reduction, and it leaves the revenues and threshold free subject to inequalities. A formal proof must fix concrete rational parameters, show that the instance code has polynomial size, and handle malformed inputs. The Compare-Step identity (milestone 2) is also the correctness lemma for the paper's binary-search algorithm.

Difficulty

The mathematics of the reduction is short; the obstacles are the two halves that the paper treats as evident. First, the reduction must be a polynomial-time computable map on strings, in Cook's one-tape Turing-machine model, that sends codes of Max-Cut instances to codes of BundleMVL-2 instances and every other string to a non-member; the rational entries θij=2qij/(ri+rj−κ)\theta_{ij}=2q_{ij}/(r_i+r_j-\kappa)θij​=2qij​/(ri​+rj​−κ) must be computed and written in reduced form. Second, NP membership needs a polynomial-time verifier that evaluates R2(C)R_2(C)R2​(C) exactly in rational arithmetic, with a bound on the bit size of the sums. An approach that states the reduction as "for every graph there is an instance with the same answer" proves nothing: a fixed yes- or no-instance does that.

Formalization scope

The development is in MultiPurchase.Hardness. Conventions committed to:

  • Products are Fin n, 0-based; in the reduction the hub is 0 : Fin (m+1) and graph node i : Fin m is product i.succ.
  • All parameters are rational (ℚ). Weights may be zero (V≥0V\ge 0V≥0), as the paper's own reduction requires (V{i}=θii=0V_{\{i\}}=\theta_{ii}=0V{i}​=θii​=0); revenues are positive and v0>0v_0>0v0​>0. These well-formedness conditions are part of the yes-predicate.
  • Only pair weights V{i,j}V_{\{i,j\}}V{i,j}​ with i<ji<ji<j are read, so the code of an instance determines its answer. The empty bundle is the no-purchase option; R2(∅)=0R_2(\emptyset)=0R2​(∅)=0.
  • The decision version is "some C⊆WC\subseteq WC⊆W has R2(C)≥κR_2(C)\ge\kappaR2​(C)≥κ" (ties count). Instances are coded over the published four-letter alphabet BSym, rationals as reduced numerator and denominator.
  • The reduction uses κ=1\kappa=1κ=1, r0=2r_0=2r0​=2, ri=1/4−i/(8(m+1))r_i=1/4-i/(8(m+1))ri​=1/4−i/(8(m+1)) for the nodes, V{i,j}=2θijV_{\{i,j\}}=2\theta_{ij}V{i,j}​=2θij​, v0=Mv_0=Mv0​=M; Max-Cut instances with M=0M=0M=0 are outside the construction (they need v0=0v_0=0v0​=0).
  • The NP-completeness of SIMPLE MAX CUT (Karp 1972) is a hypothesis of the goal; the platform has no proof of it.

The complexity layer is the published CookPvsNP_defs (Cook's PPP, NPNPNP, ≤p\le_p≤p​, NP-completeness) and ProjSchedTW_Complexity_Encoding (binary codes, cutSize, maxCutLang), with the proved CookPvsNP.polyReducible_trans. Contributions welcome: Turing-machine programs for rational arithmetic and list manipulation (reusable for every NP-membership proof over rational data), the polynomial-time reduction, and a proof of Karp's theorem for SIMPLE MAX CUT, which would discharge the hypothesis.

Selected references

  • T. Tulabandhula, D. Sinha, S. R. Karra, P. Patidar, Multi-Purchase Behavior: Modeling, Estimation and Optimization, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 2023; arXiv:2006.08055v2. https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.08055
  • R. M. Karp, Reducibility among Combinatorial Problems, in Complexity of Computer Computations, Plenum, 1972. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-2001-2_9
  • A. R. Benson, R. Kumar, A. Tomkins, A Discrete Choice Model for Subset Selection, WSDM 2018. https://doi.org/10.1145/3159652.3159702
  • S. Cook, The P versus NP Problem, Clay Mathematics Institute problem description. https://www.claymath.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/pvsnp.pdf
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OptimizationTheoretical Computer Science·Captain: mikedeng1

The Design of Approximation Algorithms 11: Planar weighted independent-set PTASTextbook

Motivation

A graph records pairs of objects that cannot be chosen together. An independent set is a choice with no conflicting pair. When each vertex has a nonnegative weight, maximum weighted independent set asks for a conflict-free set with the greatest total weight. This model occurs when choices have values and pairwise incompatibilities. On general graphs the optimization problem is difficult; the planar restriction gives a concrete geometric promise under which approximation is possible. Williamson and Shmoys state a polynomial-time approximation scheme for planar maximum independent set as Theorem 10.11 of The Design of Approximation Algorithms, in the author electronic manuscript at PDF/manuscript page 271.

Setting

The instance has vertices labeled by Fin n, an adjacency table edge : Fin n → Fin n → Bool, and a real weight weight i for each vertex. SimpleGraph.fromRel turns the table into an undirected simple graph G. The theorem requires every weight to be nonnegative. A finite set S is feasible when G.IsIndepSet (S : Set (Fin n)) holds. Its value is ∑ i ∈ S, weight i.

Planarity is expressed by HasPlanarDrawing G: vertices are placed at distinct points of the real plane, and every edge is represented by a continuous simple arc. An arc has no vertex in its interior, and distinct edges can meet only at endpoints. This is a concrete local drawing convention for the planar graph promise. The drawing witnesses the hypothesis; it is not passed as part of the algorithm's input.

The computational model is a fixed finite unit-cost RAM program. Its input includes the vertex count, an integer accuracy parameter, a complete adjacency table, and the real weights in named memory cells. Its instructions include natural-number and real addition and subtraction, exact comparisons, random-access loads and stores, branches, jumps, and halt. The machine starts with the instance preloaded and produces a bitmap after the adjacency table. This precise instruction set is a formalization convention: the book states an arithmetic-operation running time but does not specify a machine language.

Formalization targets

For every real ε>0\varepsilon>0ε>0, let k=max⁡(1,⌈1/ε⌉)k=\max(1,\lceil1/\varepsilon\rceil)k=max(1,⌈1/ε⌉). The goal asserts that a single finite program and fixed positive natural constants C,dC,dC,d work for every planar instance and every vector of nonnegative real weights. The program must halt after a number ttt of operations satisfying

t+1≤C 2dk(n+1)2.t+1\le C\,2^{dk}(n+1)^2.t+1≤C2dk(n+1)2.

Its bitmap must represent an independent set AAA, and for every independent set SSS,

(1−ε)∑i∈Swi≤∑i∈Awi.(1-\varepsilon)\sum_{i\in S}w_i\le\sum_{i\in A}w_i.(1−ε)i∈S∑​wi​≤i∈A∑​wi​.

Comparison with every feasible SSS includes an optimal solution. The same program and constants precede all accuracy and instance quantifiers. The (n+1)2(n+1)^2(n+1)2 form includes the empty graph without imposing zero running time. The result corresponds to the O(2O(1/ε)n2)O(2^{O(1/\varepsilon)}n^2)O(2O(1/ε)n2) bound in Theorem 10.11; the formal statement makes the constants and accuracy parameter explicit.

Significance

The result supplies an accuracy-time tradeoff for planar weighted independent set: any fixed positive accuracy has a quadratic dependence on graph size in this operation model, while the accuracy dependence is exponential. It separates the planar setting from the general graph problem. The finite instruction set and input layout make the computational claim inspectable, including what information the program receives and what counts as an operation.

The cited result is known in the textbook. This mission asks for a Lean proof of the packaged statement; the theorem currently has sorry, and no machine construction or correctness proof is claimed. The original local statement was compiled and source reviewed before packaging. That prior result establishes statement validity in its source workspace, while the upload payload is checked separately.

Difficulty

A high-quality independent set in each planar region does not immediately give a high-quality global set: edges across regions can create conflicts, and discarding boundary vertices can lose weight. A proof must coordinate the approximation inequality with a uniform operation bound for one program across all graph sizes, accuracies, and real weight vectors. It must also show the computed bitmap is always independent and that execution reaches an explicit halt instruction within the bound. These requirements rule out treating an optimizer, an embedding, or a best solution as preloaded input.

Formalization scope

The goal uses finite labeled graphs, nonnegative arbitrary real weights, exact real arithmetic, and the concrete drawing predicate above. It does not claim a bit-complexity bound for encoded reals. The RAM starts from a complete adjacency table and weight vector, with no supplied drawing or optimum. Its step function is deterministic; an invalid program counter is stuck, so the theorem explicitly requires a halt instruction. Outputs are bits in designated natural memory cells and are checked for validity before their weighted value is compared.

The packaged definitions are the drawing predicate, instruction type, state, transition, iteration, input layout, and output decoder. They contain no proof axioms or optimization oracle. The rational-input polynomial bit-time fragment in the source workspace is a separate statement and is outside this goal. A complete contribution would construct the finite program and prove its running time and approximation guarantee in the specified model.

Selected references

  • David P. Williamson and David B. Shmoys, The Design of Approximation Algorithms, Cambridge University Press, 2011, author electronic manuscript, Theorem 10.11, PDF/manuscript p. 271; weighted independent-set setting p. 269 and context pp. 270–272. DOI.
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Number Theory·Captain: Gabewhigham

Odd Perfect Number ConjectureOpen Problem

Motivation

A positive integer is perfect when it equals the sum of its proper divisors: 6=1+2+36 = 1 + 2 + 36=1+2+3, 28=1+2+4+7+1428 = 1 + 2 + 4 + 7 + 1428=1+2+4+7+14, then 496496496, 812881288128, and so on. Every perfect number anyone has ever exhibited is even. Whether an odd one exists is one of the oldest unsettled questions in mathematics, and it is unsettled in a strong sense: there is no heuristic consensus that odd perfect numbers should be absent for a structural reason, only an accumulating list of conditions any example would have to meet.

The even side of the question is completely resolved. Euclid (Elements IX.36) showed that if 2p−12^p - 12p−1 is prime then 2p−1(2p−1)2^{p-1}(2^p - 1)2p−1(2p−1) is perfect; Euler proved the converse, so even perfect numbers correspond exactly to Mersenne primes. Nothing comparable is known on the odd side, and the literature instead consists of increasingly severe necessary conditions.

A timeline of what is actually proved about a hypothetical odd perfect number NNN:

  • Euler (published posthumously in 1849): N=pkm2N = p^k m^2N=pkm2 with ppp prime, p≡k≡1(mod4)p \equiv k \equiv 1 \pmod 4p≡k≡1(mod4), and p∤mp \nmid mp∤m. In particular NNN is not a perfect square.
  • Servais (1887), Sylvester (1888): lower bounds on the number ω(N)\omega(N)ω(N) of distinct prime divisors; Sylvester obtained ω(N)≥5\omega(N) \ge 5ω(N)≥5, and ω(N)≥8\omega(N) \ge 8ω(N)≥8 when 3∤N3 \nmid N3∤N.
  • Touchard (1953): N≡1(mod12)N \equiv 1 \pmod{12}N≡1(mod12) or N≡9(mod36)N \equiv 9 \pmod{36}N≡9(mod36). Shorter proofs were later given by Satyanarayana (1959) and Holdener (2002).
  • Chein (1979) and Hagis (1980), independently: ω(N)≥8\omega(N) \ge 8ω(N)≥8; Nielsen (2007): ω(N)≥9\omega(N) \ge 9ω(N)≥9; Nielsen (2015): ω(N)≥10\omega(N) \ge 10ω(N)≥10.
  • Nielsen (2003): an upper bound in terms of ω\omegaω, namely N<24ω(N)N < 2^{4^{\omega(N)}}N<24ω(N) — the first bound of its kind, later sharpened by Nielsen himself.
  • Ochem–Rao (2012): N>101500N > 10^{1500}N>101500; Ochem–Rao (2014): NNN has at least 101101101 prime factors counted with multiplicity.

None of these results, alone or together, rules out an odd perfect number.

Setting

For n≥1n \ge 1n≥1 write σ(n)=∑d∣nd\sigma(n) = \sum_{d \mid n} dσ(n)=∑d∣n​d for the sum of all positive divisors of nnn. Then nnn is perfect exactly when

σ(n)=2n,\sigma(n) = 2n,σ(n)=2n,

equivalently when the divisors of nnn other than nnn itself sum to nnn. The function σ\sigmaσ is multiplicative: σ(ab)=σ(a)σ(b)\sigma(ab) = \sigma(a)\sigma(b)σ(ab)=σ(a)σ(b) whenever gcd⁡(a,b)=1\gcd(a,b) = 1gcd(a,b)=1, and σ(pa)=1+p+⋯+pa\sigma(p^a) = 1 + p + \cdots + p^aσ(pa)=1+p+⋯+pa for a prime power. The quantity σ(n)/n\sigma(n)/nσ(n)/n is the abundancy index of nnn, so a perfect number is one of abundancy index exactly 222.

Write ω(n)\omega(n)ω(n) for the number of distinct prime divisors of nnn. In Lean, ω(n)\omega(n)ω(n) is n.primeFactors.card, and perfection is Mathlib's Nat.Perfect n, which unfolds to ∑ i ∈ n.properDivisors, i = n ∧ 0 < n — the positivity clause is part of the definition, so n=0n = 0n=0 is not perfect.

Formalization targets

Goal

∀n∈N,σ(n)=2n ⟹ 2∣n.\forall n \in \mathbb{N}, \quad \sigma(n) = 2n \ \Longrightarrow\ 2 \mid n.∀n∈N,σ(n)=2n ⟹ 2∣n.

Every perfect number is even; equivalently, no odd perfect number exists. This is the weakest statement that settles the question, and it fixes no constants, so no future numerical improvement can invalidate it.

Milestones

The milestones are the unconditional theorems of the literature listed above, each stated for a hypothetical odd perfect number NNN:

N=pkm2,p prime,p≡k≡1 (mod 4),p∤m(Euler)N = p^k m^2, \quad p \text{ prime}, \quad p \equiv k \equiv 1 \ (\mathrm{mod}\ 4), \quad p \nmid m \qquad \text{(Euler)}N=pkm2,p prime,p≡k≡1 (mod 4),p∤m(Euler) N is not a perfect square(Euler)N \text{ is not a perfect square} \qquad \text{(Euler)}N is not a perfect square(Euler) ω(N)≥3,ω(N)≥5(Servais, Sylvester)\omega(N) \ge 3, \qquad \omega(N) \ge 5 \qquad \text{(Servais, Sylvester)}ω(N)≥3,ω(N)≥5(Servais, Sylvester) N≡1 (mod 12)orN≡9 (mod 36)(Touchard)N \equiv 1 \ (\mathrm{mod}\ 12) \quad \text{or} \quad N \equiv 9 \ (\mathrm{mod}\ 36) \qquad \text{(Touchard)}N≡1 (mod 12)orN≡9 (mod 36)(Touchard) N<24ω(N)(Nielsen)N < 2^{4^{\omega(N)}} \qquad \text{(Nielsen)}N<24ω(N)(Nielsen)

Significance

The result itself. A proof of the goal would complete the classification of perfect numbers begun by Euclid: together with the Euclid–Euler theorem, every perfect number would be 2p−1(2p−1)2^{p-1}(2^p-1)2p−1(2p−1) for a Mersenne prime 2p−12^p - 12p−1. A disproof — an explicit odd perfect number — would be an object with at least ten distinct prime factors and more than 150015001500 decimal digits, and would immediately settle a long list of dependent questions about the abundancy index, about the distribution of the values of σ\sigmaσ, and about the multiperfect numbers.

Formalizing it. Only the even half of the theory is currently formalized: the Euclid–Euler theorem is available in Mathlib's Archive (Archive/Wiedijk100Theorems/PerfectNumbers.lean, as Nat.eq_two_pow_mul_prime_mersenne_of_even_perfect and Theorems.perfect_iff_even_and_mersenne), and the main library carries the divisor-sum API around Nat.Perfect in Mathlib/NumberTheory/Divisors.lean, but nothing about the odd case. None of the milestones above is in Mathlib; formalizing them builds the missing σ\sigmaσ-arithmetic infrastructure — factor chains, abundancy estimates, and the parity analysis of σ\sigmaσ on odd numbers — that any attack on the goal, or any future formalization of the computational bounds, will need.

Difficulty

The obvious approach — take Euler's form N=pkm2N = p^k m^2N=pkm2 and push the congruence conditions until they conflict — does not terminate. There is no known local obstruction: the equation σ(N)=2N\sigma(N) = 2Nσ(N)=2N has no contradiction modulo any fixed integer, so no congruence argument can close the problem. The known results are all of a different type: they exclude configurations of the prime factorization by finite case analysis on factor chains, and each analysis leaves infinitely many admissible configurations. Increasing ω\omegaω weakens the constraints rather than strengthening them, which is why the lower bounds on ω\omegaω have advanced by one prime factor per decade at very high computational cost. The upper bound N<24ω(N)N < 2^{4^{\omega(N)}}N<24ω(N) makes the search space finite for each fixed ω\omegaω, but astronomically so.

Formalization scope

The development is stated over ℕ with Mathlib's Nat.Perfect, so positivity is built into the hypothesis and no separate 0 < n assumption appears. Oddness is Odd n, the number of distinct prime divisors is n.primeFactors.card, and Euler's form is stated with explicit residues p % 4 = 1, k % 4 = 1, together with ¬ p ∣ m and n = p ^ k * m ^ 2. No custom definitions are introduced; everything rests on Mathlib's Nat.sigma / Nat.Perfect API.

One caution on the shape of the milestones. Each is stated conditionally, for an nnn assumed both perfect and odd, so each would follow trivially from the goal theorem. The point of the milestones is precisely that they are proved unconditionally in the literature: a submission is expected to reproduce (or improve on) the published argument, not to derive the statement from an unproved conjecture. Since the goal is itself open on the platform, no admissible proof can take that shortcut.

Contributions welcome: any of the milestones, the supporting multiplicativity and abundancy lemmas needed for them, and reusable infrastructure for σ\sigmaσ on odd numbers. Sharper published bounds — larger values of ω\omegaω, the improved Nielsen bound N<24ω(N)−2ω(N)N < 2^{4^{\omega(N)} - 2^{\omega(N)}}N<24ω(N)−2ω(N), the Ochem–Rao size bound — are also in scope and are strictly stronger than the milestones listed.

Selected references

  • L. Euler, De numeris amicabilibus, Commentationes arithmeticae 2 (1849), 627–636.
  • J. J. Sylvester, Sur les nombres parfaits, Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences CVI (1888), 403–405.
  • J. Touchard, On prime numbers and perfect numbers, Scripta Mathematica 19 (1953), 35–39.
  • J. A. Holdener, A theorem of Touchard on the form of odd perfect numbers, American Mathematical Monthly 109 (2002), 661–663.
  • P. P. Nielsen, An upper bound for odd perfect numbers, INTEGERS: Electronic Journal of Combinatorial Number Theory 3 (2003), #A14.
  • P. P. Nielsen, Odd perfect numbers have at least nine distinct prime factors, Mathematics of Computation 76 (2007), 2109–2126.
  • P. P. Nielsen, Odd perfect numbers, Diophantine equations, and upper bounds, Mathematics of Computation 84 (2015), 2549–2567.
  • P. Ochem and M. Rao, Odd perfect numbers are greater than 10150010^{1500}101500, Mathematics of Computation 81 (2012), 1869–1877.
  • P. Ochem and M. Rao, On the number of prime factors of an odd perfect number, Mathematics of Computation 83 (2014), 2435–2439.
  • Overview and further pointers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_number
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Dynamical SystemsMathematical Physics·Captain: Yivy Yu

Birkhoff's Retrograde Global-Section Conjecture in the Planar Circular Restricted Three-Body ProblemOpen Problem

Motivation and historical timeline

In 1915, George D. Birkhoff proved the existence of a retrograde periodic orbit in each bounded component of the planar circular restricted three-body problem and asked whether its double cover bounds a disk-like global surface of section. Such a surface turns a three-dimensional flow into a two-dimensional return map and was intended as a route to a direct periodic orbit (Birkhoff 1915; Liu--Salomão, Section 1.4). McGehee obtained the corresponding section in the small-mass perturbative regime in 1969, while modern contact and symplectic methods recast the question in terms of regularized energy hypersurfaces and Reeb dynamics (Joung--van Koert, Introduction).

In 2012, Hryniewicz established the global-section criterion later quoted by Joung and van Koert: on a dynamically convex star-shaped hypersurface, the proposed binding orbit must be unknotted with self-linking number −1 (Joung--van Koert, Theorem 1.3; Hryniewicz). In 2025, Joung and van Koert combined that criterion with validated orbit and convexity computations for 0≤μ≤1/20\leq\mu\leq 1/20≤μ≤1/2 and 2.1≤c≤2.1+10−62.1\leq c\leq 2.1+10^{-6}2.1≤c≤2.1+10−6 (Theorems 1.2 and 1.5). In May 2026, Liu and Salomão proved the conjecture at every subcritical energy for mass ratios sufficiently close to 1/21/21/2, in fact obtaining rational open books bound by every retrograde orbit in that regime (Theorem 1.16). Their June 2026 Hill result covers every subcritical energy in Hill's lunar problem, which is a limiting model rather than a finite-mass instance of the circular restricted problem (Liu--Salomão 2026). These results leave the universal finite-mass, all-subcritical statement below as the open target.

Setting

Two primaries of masses 1−μ1-\mu1−μ and μ\muμ, with 0<μ<10<\mu<10<μ<1, are fixed in rotating coordinates at (−μ,0)(-\mu,0)(−μ,0) and (1−μ,0)(1-\mu,0)(1−μ,0). For a massless particle with phase coordinates (q1,q2,p1,p2)(q_1,q_2,p_1,p_2)(q1​,q2​,p1​,p2​), the Hamiltonian is

Hμ(q,p)=p12+p222+q1p2−q2p1−1−μ(q1+μ)2+q22−μ(q1−1+μ)2+q22.H_\mu(q,p)=\frac{p_1^2+p_2^2}{2}+q_1p_2-q_2p_1 -\frac{1-\mu}{\sqrt{(q_1+\mu)^2+q_2^2}} -\frac{\mu}{\sqrt{(q_1-1+\mu)^2+q_2^2}}.Hμ​(q,p)=2p12​+p22​​+q1​p2​−q2​p1​−(q1​+μ)2+q22​​1−μ​−(q1​−1+μ)2+q22​​μ​.

This is equation (1.1) of Joung--van Koert. Let h1(μ)=Hμ(L1)h_1(\mu)=H_\mu(L_1)h1​(μ)=Hμ​(L1​) be the smallest collision-free critical value, where L1L_1L1​ lies between the primaries. The subcritical range is Hμ=−c<h1(μ)H_\mu=-c<h_1(\mu)Hμ​=−c<h1​(μ); there are then two bounded physical components, one around each primary (Liu--Salomão, Section 4).

The mission labels the primary at (−μ,0)(-\mu,0)(−μ,0). With complex Levi-Civita variables z=z1+iz2z=z_1+iz_2z=z1​+iz2​ and w=w1+iw2w=w_1+iw_2w=w1​+iw2​, the inverse position map is q+μ=2z2q+\mu=2z^2q+μ=2z2, and the regularized Hamiltonian is

Kμ,c(z,w)=∣w∣22+c∣z∣2−1−μ2+2∣z∣2(z1w2−z2w1)−μ(z1w2+z2w1)−μ∣z∣2∣2z2−1∣.\begin{aligned} K_{\mu,c}(z,w)={}&\frac{|w|^2}{2}+c|z|^2-\frac{1-\mu}{2} +2|z|^2(z_1w_2-z_2w_1)\\ &-\mu(z_1w_2+z_2w_1) -\frac{\mu|z|^2}{|2z^2-1|}. \end{aligned}Kμ,c​(z,w)=​2∣w∣2​+c∣z∣2−21−μ​+2∣z∣2(z1​w2​−z2​w1​)−μ(z1​w2​+z2​w1​)−∣2z2−1∣μ∣z∣2​.​

On the collision-free domain, Kμ,c=∣z∣2(Hμ+c)K_{\mu,c}=|z|^2(H_\mu+c)Kμ,c​=∣z∣2(Hμ​+c), and its zero level regularizes collision with the labeled primary (Joung--van Koert, equation (2.2)). The selected component Σμ,c\Sigma_{\mu,c}Σμ,c​ is anchored at (z,w)=(0,1−μ)(z,w)=(0,\sqrt{1-\mu})(z,w)=(0,1−μ​). Below h1h_1h1​, it is a star-shaped three-sphere, invariant under the free antipodal deck map (z,w)↦(−z,−w)(z,w)\mapsto(-z,-w)(z,w)↦(−z,−w), and it double-covers the corresponding Moser-regularized RP3\mathbb{R}P^3RP3 component (Joung--van Koert, Proposition 2.4).

Target

For every 0<μ<10<\mu<10<μ<1, every −c<h1(μ)-c<h_1(\mu)−c<h1​(μ), and every complete flow φ\varphiφ on Σμ,c\Sigma_{\mu,c}Σμ,c​ generated by XKμ,cX_{K_{\mu,c}}XKμ,c​​ and commuting with the antipodal map, prove

∃ δGeometricRetrograde⁡(δ) ∧ RationalGSS⁡(DoubleLift⁡(δ)).\exists\,\delta\quad \operatorname{GeometricRetrograde}(\delta)\ \land\ \operatorname{RationalGSS}(\operatorname{DoubleLift}(\delta)).∃δGeometricRetrograde(δ) ∧ RationalGSS(DoubleLift(δ)).

Here δ\deltaδ consists of x∈Σμ,cx\in\Sigma_{\mu,c}x∈Σμ,c​ and a quotient period P>0P>0P>0 with φP(x)=−x\varphi_P(x)=-xφP​(x)=−x, with no earlier positive time reaching either xxx or −x-x−x. Its physical projection is required to be a q2q_2q2​-symmetric, simple, collision-free loop of winding +1+1+1 around the labeled primary. Traversing it twice gives a least-period closed orbit upstairs. This records the geometric retrograde orbit used in the Birkhoff-conjecture formulation; it does not impose the stronger pointwise astronomical monotonicity test distinguished in Joung--van Koert, Definition 2.1, Proposition 2.2, and Remark 2.3.

The rational page is encoded by a smooth immersive disk lift f~:D2→Σμ,c\widetilde f:D^2\to\Sigma_{\mu,c}f​:D2→Σμ,c​. Its lift is embedded, its interior is transverse to XKμ,cX_{K_{\mu,c}}XKμ,c​​, and its boundary is the closed double lift. After passing to the antipodal quotient, the interior remains embedded and the only nontrivial fibers are antipodal boundary pairs; hence the boundary maps exactly two-to-one onto the prime quotient orbit. Every nonbinding quotient trajectory must meet the page interior at arbitrarily large positive and negative times, matching the recurrence clause in the standard definition of a global surface of section (Hryniewicz, Definition 1.1).

Significance

A global surface of section replaces the continuous three-dimensional regularized flow, away from its binding, by the iterates of a two-dimensional first-return map. Periodic points, invariant sets, and recurrence of that map encode periodic and recurrent trajectories of the original system. This is why Birkhoff connected the conjecture to the existence of a direct orbit, and why later work uses such sections to obtain global dynamical consequences (Birkhoff 1915; Joung--van Koert, Introduction). A proof across all finite mass ratios and all subcritical energies would close the gap between the known perturbative, near-equal-mass, and narrow validated regimes.

Difficulty

Existence of a q2q_2q2​-symmetric geometric retrograde orbit is not the unresolved step: Birkhoff's shooting argument supplies one in each bounded component for every 0<μ<10<\mu<10<μ<1 and every energy below L1(μ)L_1(\mu)L1​(μ) (Liu--Salomão, Theorem 5.1). The difficult assertion is global. One must produce a disk with the correct two-fold boundary behavior, prove transversality at every interior point, and prove that every other trajectory returns to it indefinitely in both time directions. Known proofs obtain these conclusions from convexity, dynamical convexity, and pseudo-holomorphic-curve machinery only in restricted parameter ranges (Joung--van Koert, Theorem 1.5; Liu--Salomão, Theorem 1.16).

Formalization scope

The Lean model uses total real-valued extensions of the displayed Hamiltonians, but every physical assertion carries explicit collision-free or denominator guards. The first critical value is initially an infimum; a separate theorem row proves nonemptiness, boundedness below, and attainment at an inner Lagrange point. The energy component is selected by a concrete regularized collision point, the physical mass range is strict, and the headline theorem assumes an actual Flow together with its Hamiltonian-generator and antipodal-equivariance properties. These choices prevent singular derivatives, an unintended component, an empty critical set, or an arbitrary dynamics from satisfying the goal vacuously.

The antipodal quotient in Lean is presently the topological quotient by the explicit deck relation. The formal rational-page predicate is therefore a cover-lift encoding: continuity, the real-action laws, exact quotient fibers, primeness, and global returns are stated downstairs, while smoothness, immersion, and transversality are stated on the Levi-Civita lift. It does not install a smooth atlas or explicit Moser coordinates on the quotient, and it asks for one rational page rather than a full open-book fibration. The theorem concerns one labeled primary; it does not simultaneously assert the analogous result on the other bounded component. The Hill limiting problem and the pointwise astronomical sign condition are not part of the headline conclusion.

All theorem rows are Lean declarations ending in by sorry. Successful elaboration verifies that the statements are syntactically and type-theoretically coherent; it is not evidence that the open theorem has been proved. Supporting rows isolate analytic facts, regularization identities, component geometry, quotient descent, the known retrograde-orbit theorem, and the parameter ranges already covered in the cited literature.

Selected references

  • G. D. Birkhoff, The restricted problem of three bodies, Rendiconti del Circolo Matematico di Palermo 39 (1915), 265--334. DOI.
  • U. Hryniewicz, Fast finite-energy planes in symplectizations and applications, Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 364 (2012), 1859--1931. arXiv:0812.4076v8.
  • C. Joung and O. van Koert, Computational symplectic topology and symmetric orbits in the restricted three-body problem, Nonlinearity 38 (2025), 025015. arXiv:2407.19159v3.
  • L. Liu and P. A. S. Salomão, Finite energy foliations and global dynamics in the restricted three-body problem, arXiv:2506.17867v2 (25 May 2026). Preprint.
  • L. Liu and P. A. S. Salomão, Birkhoff conjecture and finite energy foliations in Hill's lunar problem, arXiv:2606.12912 (2026). Preprint.
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Quantum Information·Captain: Goku

Continuity bounds on the quantum relative entropyResearch Paper

Motivation

The quantum relative entropy is frequently used as a distance, or distinguishability measure between two quantum states. In this paper we study the relation between this measure and a number of other measures used for that purpose, including the trace norm distance. More precisely, we derive lower and upper bounds on the relative entropy in terms of various distance measures for the difference of the states based on unitarily invariant norms. The upper bounds can be considered as statements of continuity of the relative entropy distance in the sense of Fannes. We employ methods from optimisation theory to obtain bounds that are as sharp as possible.

This mission is the statement-level formalization of Continuity bounds on the quantum relative entropy (arXiv:quant-ph/0503218v3). Every numbered result of the paper was scanned. The results stated here are open sorry goals, ready for solvers to prove.

What is formalized

25 statements of the paper are in Lean 4 (Mathlib 0df444a). The goal theorem is §VI, Theorem 4: sharp lower bound for every UI norm (seed headline) (§VI, Theorem 4: sharp lower bound for every UI norm (seed headline), PDF p. 1). The milestones are the other numbered results, in the paper's order, each quoting the paper.

The paper's own objects are the definition item of this mission. Objects shared across papers come from the prove2quantum library and from earlier papers' missions, listed as references.

Provenance: prove2quantum's pipeline drafted each statement (gpt-6.1-sol on Stanford's Sherlock cluster). A blind read-back, written without seeing the paper, is attached to every item. An independent moderator compared each statement against the paper and passed the whole paper without edits.

Deferred results

4 results of the paper are not stated yet, because the library lacks an interface they need:

  • §V.B, Theorem 3: printed logarithmic continuity bound (deferred): A corrected Fannes modulus or a source-justified local distance domain for the logarithmic continuity bound; the unrestricted printed inequality cannot be asserted. (source-ambiguity)
  • §VII.A, unnumbered printed series (48) (deferred): A corrected Taylor series for (46): powers beta^(k-1) and (1-beta)^(k-1), with a plus (-1)^k term. The independently valid leading coefficient is already stated. (source-ambiguity)
  • §VII.B, Theorem 6: complete bound plus fixed-dimension sharpness wording (deferred): An exact fixed-dimension, fixed-actual-minimum sharpness domain, including the residual-eigenvalue condition, or a corrected dimension-independent sharpness claim. (source-ambiguity)
  • §VIII, Theorem 7: full asymptotic statement (converse deferred): A support-reducing/invariance hypothesis with an audited converse, or a bound using the minimum positive eigenvalue of the full sigma_n instead of its compression. (source-ambiguity)

Selected references

  • Continuity bounds on the quantum relative entropy, arXiv:quant-ph/0503218v3, https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0503218v3
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Discrete Geometry·Captain: xuanji

Circle packing in a square: exact constantsTextbook

Motivation

Packing congruent circles into a square is a classical problem in discrete geometry: for each natural number nnn, choose a common radius as large as possible while keeping all disks inside the square and preventing overlap. Every exact value requires two logically distinct achievements: an explicit configuration attaining the proposed radius and a proof that no configuration can do better.

The character of those proofs changes sharply with nnn. The first cases admit short geometric arguments; later cases use contact-graph analysis, specialized case divisions, or computer-assisted global optimization with interval arithmetic. Formalizing the resulting constants therefore provides a growing benchmark for extremal geometry, real algebra, finite configurations, and verified computation in Lean.

This is an open-ended formalization mission. It begins with the exact constants currently represented by theorem-backed milestones, but it is not restricted to a fixed terminal value of nnn. Further milestones may be added whenever an exact packing value and its rigorous optimality argument are identified and stated precisely enough for formalization.

Setting

A point is a pair of real coordinates. For points p=(x,y)p=(x,y)p=(x,y) and q=(x′,y′)q=(x',y')q=(x′,y′), squared Euclidean distance is

sqDist⁡(p,q)=(x−x′)2+(y−y′)2.\operatorname{sqDist}(p,q)=(x-x')^2+(y-y')^2.sqDist(p,q)=(x−x′)2+(y−y′)2.

For a real radius rrr, a point lies in the inner square when both coordinates belong to the closed interval [r,1−r][r,1-r][r,1−r]. This is exactly the coordinate condition saying that a closed disk of radius rrr, centered at that point, is contained in the unit square.

The predicate Packable⁡(n,r)\operatorname{Packable}(n,r)Packable(n,r) requires 0≤r≤120\le r\le \tfrac120≤r≤21​ and a family of nnn centers in the inner square such that the squared distance between every two distinctly indexed centers is at least (2r)2(2r)^2(2r)2. Equality is allowed, so tangent disks are admitted. Radius zero is also admitted.

Define

rn=sup⁡{r∈R:Packable⁡(n,r)}r_n=\sup\{r\in\mathbb R:\operatorname{Packable}(n,r)\}rn​=sup{r∈R:Packable(n,r)}

and define the optimal covered-area fraction by

cn=nπrn2.c_n=n\pi r_n^2.cn​=nπrn2​.

It is often convenient to use the equivalent point-separation constant dnd_ndn​, the greatest possible minimum pairwise distance among nnn points in the unit square. The conversion is

rn=dn2(1+dn),cn=nπ(dn2(1+dn))2.r_n=\frac{d_n}{2(1+d_n)}, \qquad c_n=n\pi\left(\frac{d_n}{2(1+d_n)}\right)^2.rn​=2(1+dn​)dn​​,cn​=nπ(2(1+dn​)dn​​)2.

The Lean definitions use a supremum rather than assuming in advance that an optimal packing is attained.

Current exact-value milestones

The mission currently contains theorem-backed milestones for the following values:

nnnExact separation or area valueProof character in the supplied notes
222d2=2d_2=\sqrt2d2​=2​, hence c2=π(3−22)c_2=\pi(3-2\sqrt2)c2​=π(3−22​)diagonal bound
333d3=6−2d_3=\sqrt6-\sqrt2d3​=6​−2​minimum enclosing square of a triangle
444d4=1d_4=1d4​=1, hence c4=π/4c_4=\pi/4c4​=π/4convex hull and perimeter
555d5=1/2d_5=1/\sqrt2d5​=1/2​four-cell pigeonhole argument
666d6=13/6d_6=\sqrt{13}/6d6​=13​/6case-specific geometric proof
777d7=4−23d_7=4-2\sqrt3d7​=4−23​hand proof and later computer verification
888d8=2−3d_8=\sqrt{2-\sqrt3}d8​=2−3​​case-specific geometric proof
999d9=1/2d_9=1/2d9​=1/2, hence c9=π/4c_9=\pi/4c9​=π/4classical geometric proof
161616d16=1/3d_{16}=1/3d16​=1/3, hence c16=π/4c_{16}=\pi/4c16​=π/4theoretical grid-optimality proof
252525d25=1/4d_{25}=1/4d25​=1/4, hence c25=π/4c_{25}=\pi/4c25​=π/4theoretical grid-optimality proof
363636d36=1/5d_{36}=1/5d36​=1/5, hence c36=π/4c_{36}=\pi/4c36​=π/4theoretical grid-optimality proof

For rows stated using dnd_ndn​, the corresponding milestone for cnc_ncn​ uses the conversion formula above. The equalities are claims about the supremum-defined packing constants, not merely about the displayed candidate configurations.

An extensible mission

The milestone list is intended to grow. The supplied survey notes classify n=2,…,33n=2,\ldots,33n=2,…,33 and n=36n=36n=36 as rigorously solved in the cited literature, while distinguishing n=34n=34n=34 and n=35n=35n=35 as not rigorously closed in the cited 2021 account. Many of the computer-assisted cases do not have a simple radical expression in the supplied notes. Before such a case is linked to a Lean theorem, its primary source must provide a precise candidate value, algebraic characterization, certified enclosure, or optimal-configuration certificate that can be stated faithfully.

A new milestone should identify:

  1. the precise value or exact characterization being formalized;
  2. an attaining configuration or a certified existence argument;
  3. a universal upper bound or global-optimality certificate;
  4. the primary source and exact theorem, equation, or certificate location;
  5. any trusted computational artifact and the arithmetic guarantees it requires.

Numerical evidence and strong bounds are valuable, but they must be labeled as bounds rather than exact-value milestones. Conversely, newly published exact results for larger nnn may be added without changing the underlying definitions.

Proof obligations

Every exact-value milestone must connect the proposed value to Packable, r_n, and c_n. Constructing a configuration establishes only a lower bound. An upper-bound argument without attainability also does not establish equality. A complete proof must bridge both directions through the supremum definition.

The proof methods may include:

  • elementary diameter, pigeonhole, convexity, or enclosing-shape arguments;
  • normalization between disk centers and point-separation configurations;
  • contact-graph and boundary-constraint analysis;
  • finite case decompositions;
  • interval arithmetic and formally checked branch-and-bound certificates;
  • exact algebraic identities needed to convert dnd_ndn​ into rnr_nrn​ and cnc_ncn​.

Shortcuts that redefine rnr_nrn​, dnd_ndn​, or cnc_ncn​ to equal a desired answer are excluded. The constants must remain consequences of the common geometric model.

Mission structure

The root theorem CirclePackingConstants.c_all is the conjunction of the eleven exact-value milestones currently in the mission, covering n=2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,16,25,36n=2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,16,25,36n=2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,16,25,36. Its proof sketch reduces the root directly to those milestone theorems, so the mission remains open until every current exact value is proved.

The milestone theorems remain separately reusable and independently auditable. When further exact values are added, a successor aggregate theorem can extend the conjunction and become the new root without replacing the shared definitions or invalidating earlier results.

This structure allows elementary cases, historical hand proofs, and computer-assisted certificates to progress independently while remaining part of one cumulative library of exact circle-packing constants.

Formalization scope

The Lean model uses ℝ × ℝ for points and an explicit coordinate formula for squared Euclidean distance. Disk containment is represented by inclusive coordinate inequalities. Nonoverlap is represented by a weak squared-distance inequality, so tangency is permitted. The indexing type is Fin n, and the definitions apply to every natural number, including zero.

The definition bundle contains only Point, sqDist, InInnerSquare, Packable, r_n, and c_n. Solvers may introduce normalization maps, separation bounds, explicit configurations, supremum lemmas, contact structures, certificate checkers, and radical or polynomial identities as auxiliary declarations.

Selected references

  • User-supplied notes, Circles in squares: constants, proofs, and what is actually known, supplied September 12, 2026. The notes summarize the exact small-nnn formulas, grid cases, historical proof taxonomy, and computer-assisted frontier used to organize this mission.
  • J. Schaer and A. Meir, “On a geometric extremum problem,” Canadian Mathematical Bulletin 8 (1965), 21–27.
  • J. Schaer, “The densest packing of nine circles in a square,” Canadian Mathematical Bulletin 8 (1965), 273–277.
  • B. L. Schwartz, “Separating points in a square,” Journal of Recreational Mathematics 3 (1970), 195–204.
  • J. B. M. Melissen, “Densest packing of six equal circles in a square,” Elemente der Mathematik 49 (1994), 27–31.
  • M. C. Markot, “Improved interval methods for solving circle packing problems in the unit square,” Journal of Global Optimization 81 (2021), 773–803.
  • Erich Friedman, Circles in Squares, Erich's Packing Center, for background tables and diagrams of candidate packings.
90 thms8 active users
CombinatoricsOperations ResearchProbability·Captain: Shuze Chen

The Komlos ConjectureOpen Problem

Motivation

Discrepancy theory asks how evenly a collection of objects can be split into two parts. Its central open question is a conjecture of Komlós, first circulated in the 1980s: any finite family of vectors of Euclidean length at most one can be signed ±1\pm 1±1 so that the signed sum is bounded in every coordinate by a universal constant — independent of how many vectors there are and of the dimension they live in.

Timeline

  • 1963. Steinitz-type vector balancing questions circulate; Bárány and Grinberg later (1981) show any norm admits a dimension-dependent bound 2d2d2d, setting the theme: how much of the dependence on dimension is real?
  • 1981. Beck and Fiala (Discrete Appl. Math.) prove degree-ttt set systems have discrepancy at most 2t−12t - 12t−1, by the floating-colors argument, and conjecture O(t)O(\sqrt{t})O(t​).
  • 1980s. Komlós poses the vector form — unit ℓ2\ell^2ℓ2-norm columns, constant ℓ∞\ell^\inftyℓ∞ discrepancy — which implies the Beck–Fiala conjecture; it circulates through Spencer's Ten Lectures (1987) as the central open problem of the area.
  • 1985. Spencer (Trans. AMS) proves "six standard deviations suffice": discrepancy 6n6\sqrt{n}6n​ for nnn sets on nnn points, beating random signing via the partial-coloring method.
  • 1998. Banaszczyk (Random Struct. Algorithms) proves the Komlós bound O(log⁡n)O(\sqrt{\log n})O(logn​) by a recursive Gaussian-measure argument over convex bodies.
  • 2010–2016. The constructive era: Bansal (2010) makes Spencer algorithmic by SDP random walks, Lovett and Meka (2012) simplify, and Bansal, Dadush, and Garg (STOC 2016) give a polynomial-time algorithm matching Banaszczyk's bound.
  • 2023. Kunisky (SIAM J. Discrete Math.) constructs instances from unsatisfiable formulas with discrepancy approaching 1+21+\sqrt{2}1+2​ — the strongest lower bound on the conjectured constant.
  • 2025. Bansal and Jiang (arXiv:2508.03961) break the Banaszczyk barrier: O~((log⁡n)1/4)\tilde{O}((\log n)^{1/4})O~((logn)1/4) for Komlós, and the Beck–Fiala conjecture resolved for t≥log⁡2nt \ge \log^2 nt≥log2n — the first movement in nearly thirty years. The gap between 2.414…2.414\ldots2.414… and O~((log⁡n)1/4)\tilde{O}((\log n)^{1/4})O~((logn)1/4) is the conjecture.

Setting

Fix nnn vectors v1,…,vn∈Rmv_1, \dots, v_n \in \mathbb{R}^mv1​,…,vn​∈Rm with Euclidean norm ∥vi∥2≤1\lVert v_i \rVert_2 \le 1∥vi​∥2​≤1. A sign vector is an ε∈{−1,+1}n\varepsilon \in \{-1, +1\}^nε∈{−1,+1}n: one sign εi∈{±1}\varepsilon_i \in \{\pm 1\}εi​∈{±1} per vector. Writing vijv_{ij}vij​ for the jjj-th coordinate of the vector viv_ivi​, the discrepancy of the family under ε\varepsilonε is the largest coordinate, in absolute value, of the signed sum ∑iεivi\sum_i \varepsilon_i v_i∑i​εi​vi​ — that is, max⁡j≤m∣∑i≤nεivij∣\max_{j \le m} \lvert \sum_{i \le n} \varepsilon_i v_{ij} \rvertmaxj≤m​∣∑i≤n​εi​vij​∣, the ℓ∞\ell^\inftyℓ∞ norm of the signed sum. The Komlós property at constant KKK — KomlosBound K — says that every such family, in every nnn and every mmm, admits a sign vector with every coordinate of the signed sum at most KKK in absolute value.

Set systems embed as the special case of 0/10/10/1-incidence matrices: if AAA is an m×nm \times nm×n matrix of 000s and 111s in which every column has at most ttt ones (every element lies in at most ttt sets), the columns scaled by 1/t1/\sqrt{t}1/t​ have norm at most one, so the Komlós property gives discrepancy KtK\sqrt{t}Kt​ — the Beck–Fiala conjecture.

Formalization targets

Goal — the Komlós conjecture

∃ K∈R:every v1,…,vn∈Rm with ∥vi∥2≤1 admits ε∈{±1}n with max⁡j∣∑iεivij∣≤K.\exists\, K \in \mathbb{R}: \quad \text{every } v_1, \dots, v_n \in \mathbb{R}^m \text{ with } \lVert v_i\rVert_2 \le 1 \text{ admits } \varepsilon \in \{\pm 1\}^n \text{ with } \max_j \Big|\sum_i \varepsilon_i v_{ij}\Big| \le K.∃K∈R:every v1​,…,vn​∈Rm with ∥vi​∥2​≤1 admits ε∈{±1}n with jmax​​i∑​εi​vij​​≤K.

The goal fixes no value of KKK: any finite universal constant settles it, so the statement survives every improvement in the constant.

Milestones — the known ladder

Eight results over the same definitions: Beck–Fiala's 2t−12t - 12t−1 for degree-ttt set systems; Spencer's 6n6\sqrt{n}6n​ for nnn sets on nnn points; Banaszczyk's O(log⁡n)O(\sqrt{\log n})O(logn​) for the Komlós setting; its corollary O(tlog⁡n)O(\sqrt{t \log n})O(tlogn​) for set systems; the reduction "Komlós at KKK implies Beck–Fiala at KtK\sqrt{t}Kt​"; Kunisky's lower bound K≥1+2K \ge 1 + \sqrt{2}K≥1+2​; and the two 2025 Bansal–Jiang breakthroughs — O~((log⁡n)1/4)\tilde{O}((\log n)^{1/4})O~((logn)1/4) for the Komlós setting, and the Beck–Fiala conjecture's bound O(t)O(\sqrt{t})O(t​) in the regime t=Ω(log⁡2n)t = \Omega(\log^2 n)t=Ω(log2n).

Significance

The conjecture is the meeting point of the two main techniques of discrepancy theory — partial coloring and the Gaussian/convex-geometric method — and each further improvement has forced a new technique into existence. A proof would resolve the Beck–Fiala conjecture in full and sharpen the hereditary-discrepancy landscape; a disproof would break the widely-shared expectation that vector balancing is dimension-free. The problem is also a benchmark for algorithmic discrepancy: every known bound now has a polynomial-time counterpart, and the constructive tools built for it (random-walk roundings, spectral partial colorings) are used across approximation algorithms and ranging into differential privacy.

None of this literature is formalized anywhere; Mathlib has no discrepancy theory at all. The definitions here are elementary — finite sums, absolute values, one norm hypothesis — so the mission's entry cost is unusually low for an open-problem mission: the Beck–Fiala theorem and the scaling reduction are self-contained finite combinatorics, while Spencer and Banaszczyk each force a genuinely new proof technique (pigeonhole partial coloring; Gaussian measure on convex bodies) into Lean.

Difficulty

Random signs lose: they give Θ(n)\Theta(\sqrt{n})Θ(n​), not a constant, so the naive probabilistic argument is ruled out from the start. The Beck–Fiala argument caps discrepancy by degree, not by norm, and provably cannot be pushed below 2t−O(1)2t - O(1)2t−O(1) by its own bookkeeping. Partial coloring alone loses a logarithm through its iteration, and Banaszczyk's method is blocked at log⁡n\sqrt{\log n}logn​ by the Gaussian measure of the cube. The 2025 advance decouples the two methods but still pays iterated polylogarithmic factors. Nothing currently known contracts the remaining gap to a constant, and the lower bound says the constant, if it exists, is at least 1+21 + \sqrt{2}1+2​ — so any proof must handle instances strictly harder than the set-system case.

Formalization scope

The Lean model commits to: vectors as EuclideanSpace ℝ (Fin m), whose norm is the ℓ2\ell^2ℓ2 norm (the hypothesis ∥vi∥≤1\lVert v_i \rVert \le 1∥vi​∥≤1 reads ‖v i‖ ≤ 1); the ℓ∞\ell^\inftyℓ∞ conclusion written coordinatewise as ∀ j, |∑ i, ε i * v i j| ≤ K, avoiding any auxiliary sup-norm structure; sign vectors as real vectors with ε i = 1 ∨ ε i = -1; and set systems as matrices A : Fin m → Fin n → ℝ with an entrywise 0/10/10/1 hypothesis and column-degree counted by Set.ncard. Quantifier order matters everywhere: in KomlosBound K the constant is fixed before nnn and mmm — a KKK depending on nnn would make the statement the trivial n\sqrt{n}n​ bound. In beck_fiala the hypothesis t≥1t \ge 1t≥1 is required (the degree-000 system has discrepancy 0>2t−10 > 2t-10>2t−1 otherwise); the Banaszczyk-form bounds use log⁡(n+2)\log(n+2)log(n+2) so that the bound is positive already at n≤1n \le 1n≤1. In the Bansal–Jiang milestones the asymptotic O~\tilde{O}O~ and Ω\OmegaΩ are rendered by existential constants quantified before all instances: the hidden poly(log⁡log⁡n)\mathrm{poly}(\log\log n)poly(loglogn) factor becomes (log⁡log⁡(n+8))γ(\log\log(n+8))^{\gamma}(loglog(n+8))γ for some fixed γ>0\gamma > 0γ>0 (the inner shift +8+8+8 keeps the iterated logarithm positive), and the threshold t=Ω(log⁡2n)t = \Omega(\log^2 n)t=Ω(log2n) becomes C0log⁡2(n+2)≤tC_0 \log^2(n+2) \le tC0​log2(n+2)≤t for some fixed C0>0C_0 > 0C0​>0.

Welcome contributions: any milestone in any order — beck_fiala and komlos_implies_beck_fiala are self-contained finite arguments and the natural entry points; spencer_six_deviations and banaszczyk_bound each import a major technique; komlos_lower_bound needs an explicit construction and a case analysis over all sign vectors. Reusable infrastructure — partial colorings, Gaussian measure bounds for convex bodies, hereditary discrepancy — is welcome as platform theorems. The matrix Spencer conjecture, prefix discrepancy, and the Steinitz problem are related but deliberately left to future missions.

Selected references

  • J. Beck, T. Fiala, "Integer-making" theorems, Discrete Applied Mathematics 3 (1981). doi:10.1016/0166-218X(81)90022-6
  • J. Spencer, Six standard deviations suffice, Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 289 (1985). doi:10.1090/S0002-9947-1985-0784009-0
  • W. Banaszczyk, Balancing vectors and Gaussian measures of n-dimensional convex bodies, Random Structures & Algorithms 12 (1998). doi link
  • N. Bansal, D. Dadush, S. Garg, An algorithm for Komlós conjecture matching Banaszczyk's bound, FOCS 2016 / SIAM J. Comput. arXiv:1605.02882
  • N. Bansal, H. Jiang, Decoupling via affine spectral-independence: Beck–Fiala and Komlós bounds beyond Banaszczyk, 2025. arXiv:2508.03961
  • D. Kunisky, The discrepancy of unsatisfiable matrices and a lower bound for the Komlós conjecture constant, SIAM J. Discrete Math. 37 (2023). arXiv:2111.02974
  • B. Chazelle, The Discrepancy Method, Cambridge University Press, 2000. author's page
24 thms8 active usersReviewed
Algorithmic Game TheoryComplexity TheoryTheoretical Computer Science·Captain: mikedeng1

Anyone but Him: The Complexity of Precluding an Alternative: Control by Partition of Voters Is Vulnerable or NP-Complete for Plurality, Condorcet and Approval Voting, Depending on Tie-HandlingResearch Paper

Why election control is studied

An election is run by someone — a chair, a committee, an organiser — who can shape it without touching a single ballot: by deciding which candidates appear, which voters are registered, or how the electorate is split into bodies that pre-select nominees. Bartholdi, Tovey and Trick (1992) proposed to measure how well a voting rule protects itself against such manipulation by the computational difficulty of finding a successful manipulation: a rule for which the chair's problem is NP-complete is resistant, one for which it is solvable in polynomial time is vulnerable. They studied constructive control, where the chair wants a given candidate to become the unique winner.

Hemaspaandra, Hemaspaandra and Rothe (arXiv:cs/0507027, Artificial Intelligence 171, 2007) introduced destructive control: the chair wants a despised candidate not to be the unique winner ("anyone but him"). They classified plurality, Condorcet and approval voting under seven control types in both settings. This mission formalizes the last of their main results, Theorem 3.6, on control by partition of voters.

Timeline:

  • 1992: Bartholdi, Tovey and Trick define constructive control and its complexity for plurality and Condorcet; for partition of voters they use a model in which ties in subcommittees are forbidden.
  • 2005–2007: Hemaspaandra, Hemaspaandra and Rothe add destructive control, approval voting, and the two tie-handling models below.
  • 2026: version v5 of the paper adds Appendix A, a corrected proof of the TP case of Theorem 4.21.

Setting

An election has candidates C={0,…,m−1}C=\{0,\dots,m-1\}C={0,…,m−1} and voters V={0,…,n−1}V=\{0,\dots,n-1\}V={0,…,n−1}, each casting a ballot. For plurality and Condorcet voting a ballot is a strict ranking of CCC; for approval voting it is the set of candidates the voter approves of. The election (D,U)(D,U)(D,U), with candidates D⊆CD\subseteq CD⊆C and voters U⊆VU\subseteq VU⊆V, reads each ballot through the preferences it induces on DDD. Its winner set W(D,U)W(D,U)W(D,U) is:

  • plurality: the candidates of DDD ranked first among DDD by a maximum number of voters of UUU;
  • Condorcet: the x∈Dx\in Dx∈D that beat every other y∈Dy\in Dy∈D in the pairwise election, #{v∈U:x≻vy}>#{v∈U:y≻vx}\#\{v\in U: x\succ_v y\}>\#\{v\in U: y\succ_v x\}#{v∈U:x≻v​y}>#{v∈U:y≻v​x} (at most one candidate; possibly none);
  • approval: the candidates of DDD approved by a maximum number of voters of UUU.

In control by partition of voters the chair splits VVV into two subcommittees V1V_1V1​ and V2=V∖V1V_2=V\setminus V_1V2​=V∖V1​ (either may be empty). Each subcommittee holds the subelection (C,Vi)(C,V_i)(C,Vi​) and nominates candidates. Under Ties-Promote (TP) it nominates all its winners; under Ties-Eliminate (TE) it nominates its winner if there is exactly one and nobody otherwise. The two-stage election then is

twoStage(V1)=W(N(V1)∪N(V2), V),\mathrm{twoStage}(V_1)=W\bigl(N(V_1)\cup N(V_2),\,V\bigr),twoStage(V1​)=W(N(V1​)∪N(V2​),V),

the nominees running against each other before all voters. Given (C,c,V)(C,c,V)(C,c,V), the constructive problem asks whether some partition gives twoStage(V1)={c}\mathrm{twoStage}(V_1)=\{c\}twoStage(V1​)={c}, the destructive problem whether some partition gives twoStage(V1)≠{c}\mathrm{twoStage}(V_1)\neq\{c\}twoStage(V1​)={c}.

Definition 3.1 of the paper: a rule is susceptible to a control type if in some election the chair can change ccc from not being the unique winner to being it (constructive), or from being the unique winner to not being it (destructive). It is vulnerable if it is susceptible and the problem's language is in P; certifiably-vulnerable if it is susceptible and a successful partition can be computed in polynomial time; resistant if it is susceptible and the language is NP-complete.

Formalization targets

Goal: Theorem 3.6

With Hitting Set and Exact Cover by Three-Sets NP-complete (the two facts the paper takes from Garey and Johnson),

approval: resistant (CC, TE and TP); vulnerable and certifiably-vulnerable (DC, TE and TP);plurality: vulnerable and certifiably-vulnerable (CC and DC, TE); resistant (CC and DC, TP);Condorcet: vulnerable and certifiably-vulnerable (DC).\begin{aligned} &\text{approval: resistant (CC, TE and TP);\ vulnerable and certifiably-vulnerable (DC, TE and TP);}\\ &\text{plurality: vulnerable and certifiably-vulnerable (CC and DC, TE);\ resistant (CC and DC, TP);}\\ &\text{Condorcet: vulnerable and certifiably-vulnerable (DC).} \end{aligned}​approval: resistant (CC, TE and TP); vulnerable and certifiably-vulnerable (DC, TE and TP);plurality: vulnerable and certifiably-vulnerable (CC and DC, TE); resistant (CC and DC, TP);Condorcet: vulnerable and certifiably-vulnerable (DC).​

Nine clauses, each including its susceptibility part.

Milestones

  1. Susceptibility witnesses: Examples 4.9, 4.10, 4.11, 4.16, 4.17.
  2. Polynomial-time algorithms: Theorems 4.18 and 4.19 (plurality, TE), 4.20 (Condorcet), 4.21 (approval, destructive, TE and TP).
  3. Plurality TP hardness: Claims 4.29 and 4.30 on Construction 4.28; Theorem 4.39 (Restricted Hitting Set is NP-complete); Claims 4.40 and 4.41; Corollary 4.42.
  4. Approval constructive hardness: Theorems 4.45 (TP) and 4.46 (TE), by reduction from X3C.

Significance

Theorem 3.6 is where the tie-handling model changes the classification: plurality is vulnerable under TE and resistant under TP, for both constructive and destructive control. Under TE at most one candidate leaves each subcommittee; under TP any set of tied candidates may advance. The theorem also shows that approval and Condorcet, which resist constructive control by partition of voters, are vulnerable to its destructive form. Results of this kind underlie the comparison tables of the later control literature (Faliszewski, Hemaspaandra and Hemaspaandra, Control and bribery in voting, 2016).

The paper's proofs are combinatorial algorithms and many-one reductions, stated informally. No part of the paper has been machine-checked. A formal development produces:

  • the elections, winner sets on candidate subsets, and the two-stage election, in a form reusable for the other control types of the paper (adding, deleting and partitioning candidates or voters);
  • verified polynomial-time algorithms on Cook's Turing-machine model. Several of the printed algorithms have gaps, including the TP case of Theorem 4.21 that the authors corrected in v5, so a checked version settles their correctness;
  • verified reductions from Hitting Set and X3C.

Difficulty

The algorithmic clauses need more than correctness of a decision procedure: membership in P and polynomial-time computability are statements about a one-tape Turing machine reading binary codes. An algorithm described by "for each candidate d, check …" has to be compiled to that model, and its running time bounded, which no existing library on the platform does for elections.

The plurality TE algorithms are case analyses: who can be nominated by each part, and how many first-place votes each candidate must surrender. The cases where ccc has no first-place vote, or where a subcommittee is empty, are exactly where the printed algorithms slip. The approval TP destructive algorithm was wrong as first published.

For the hardness clauses the reductions must be shown correct for every instance. Claim 4.41 needs an arithmetic padding condition, which is why the paper first proves Restricted Hitting Set NP-complete (Theorem 4.39) and then reduces from it. NP membership, which the paper calls obvious, still has to be proved in the checking-relation form of NP.

Formalization scope

  • Candidates are Fin m and voters Fin n, both possibly empty. A profile is Fin n → Ballot m, so the multiset of ballots is a list (one ballot per voter, as the paper assumes on p. 4).
  • A ranking is Equiv.Perm (Fin m), read as the position of each candidate. An approval ballot is a Finset.
  • Winner sets are computed on a candidate subset with the induced preferences. Every election with an empty candidate set has no winner, and an empty subcommittee ties all candidates at score zero.
  • A partition is V₁ : Finset (Fin n) and its complement.
  • Unique winner means the winner set equals {c}; an empty winner set is a destructive success.
  • P, NP-completeness and polynomial-time computability are the published CookPvsNP notions. Instance codes are lists of binary numbers over the published alphabet BSym: m,n,cm, n, cm,n,c, then the ballots.
  • A certificate function must return the code of a partition that works on every yes-instance and the fixed token "control impossible" (encNats [0]) on every no-instance.
  • Construction 4.28 is a predicate satisfied by every profile of the stated shape, whatever the "arbitrary" orders.
  • The only hypotheses are NP-completeness of Hitting Set (p. 24) and of X3C (p. 28), exactly as the paper states them. Both are true (Garey–Johnson SP8, SP2).

None of these is a trivializing reading. "In P" is a Turing-machine statement, not a Decidable instance. Every vulnerable or resistant clause carries its susceptibility part. A certifiable-vulnerability witness must output a successful partition, which is more than deciding the language.

Welcome contributions: proofs of the examples (finite computations), of Claims 4.29–4.41 (counting arguments), of NP membership of the control languages, and Turing-machine implementations of election-scoring primitives, which later missions can reuse.

Selected references

  • E. Hemaspaandra, L. A. Hemaspaandra, J. Rothe, Anyone but Him: The Complexity of Precluding an Alternative, Artificial Intelligence 171(5–6):255–285, 2007; arXiv:cs/0507027v5, 2026. https://arxiv.org/abs/cs/0507027 — DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.artint.2007.01.005
  • J. Bartholdi III, C. Tovey, M. Trick, How hard is it to control an election?, Mathematical and Computer Modelling 16(8–9):27–40, 1992. https://doi.org/10.1016/0895-7177(92)90085-Y
  • M. Garey, D. Johnson, Computers and Intractability: A Guide to the Theory of NP-Completeness, W. H. Freeman, 1979.
  • S. Cook, The P versus NP problem, Clay Mathematics Institute problem description. https://www.claymath.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/pvsnp.pdf
  • P. Faliszewski, E. Hemaspaandra, L. A. Hemaspaandra, Control and bribery in voting, in Handbook of Computational Social Choice, Cambridge University Press, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107446984.008
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CombinatoricsComplexity TheoryTheoretical Computer Science·Captain: mikedeng1

Complexity of n-Queens Completion: n-Queens Completion Is NP-Complete and #P-CompleteResearch Paper

Motivation

The n-Queens problem, placing nnn mutually non-attacking queens on an n×nn\times nn×n chessboard, is a standard benchmark in constraint programming and artificial intelligence. As a decision problem it is trivial: a solution exists for every nnn other than 222 and 333 and can be written down in closed form, and the input ⟨n⟩\langle n\rangle⟨n⟩ has only log⁡n\log nlogn bits. This has repeatedly led to criticism of its use as a benchmark.

The variant n-Queens Completion, posed in 1850, asks whether a board on which some queens are already placed can be completed to a full solution. Gent, Jefferson and Nightingale (JAIR 2017) show that this variant is genuinely hard: deciding it is NP-complete and counting its completions is #P-complete. This gives benchmark designers a version of the puzzle with a provable hardness guarantee, and it makes the n-Queens literature (Pólya's modular construction, Rivin–Zabih exchanges) a source of reduction gadgets.

Timeline:

  • Pólya: the product construction of n-Queens solutions from modular ones (as stated by Bell and Stevens 2009, Thm. 6).
  • 1992: Rivin and Zabih's exchange lemma for queens using the same lines (Thm. 2.4).
  • 1996: Creignou and Hermann classify the complexity of counting generalized satisfiability; #P-completeness of Monotone 1-in-3-SAT is a corollary.
  • 2014: Porschen, Schmidt, Speckenmeyer and Wotzlaw (Lemma 4): 1-in-3-SAT with positive literals, distinct variables per clause and at most three occurrences per variable is NP-complete.
  • 2017: Gent, Jefferson and Nightingale: n-Queens Completion is NP-complete and #P-complete (Theorem 37).

Setting

A queen is a pair q=(α,β)q=(\alpha,\beta)q=(α,β) of non-negative integers, its column and row. Its sum-diagonal is α+β\alpha+\betaα+β and its difference-diagonal is the integer α−β\alpha-\betaα−β. It fits on board size nnn if max⁡(α,β)<n\max(\alpha,\beta)<nmax(α,β)<n. Two distinct queens attack each other if they share a column, a row, a sum-diagonal or a difference-diagonal. A solution to the nnn-Queens problem (n≥1n\ge1n≥1) is a set of nnn queens that fit on board size nnn, no two attacking.

An instance of n-Queens Completion (Problem 2) is a pair ⟨n,P⟩\langle n,P\rangle⟨n,P⟩: a board size n≥1n\ge1n≥1 and a set PPP of queens that fit on board size nnn, no two in the same row or column. PPP may contain two queens on a common diagonal; such an instance simply has no solution. A completion is an nnn-Queens solution SSS with P⊆SP\subseteq SP⊆S.

The proof passes through four intermediate problems. In Problem 3 the extra queens must use prescribed columns CCC and rows RRR. In Problem 4 (Excluded Diagonals) sets D−D^-D−, D+D^+D+ of difference- and sum-diagonals are forbidden. Problem 5 is a family of Problem 4 instances that interact only through their sum-diagonals. Problem 6 is Restricted 1-in-3-SAT: clauses of three distinct positive variables, every variable in at most three clauses, and an assignment must make exactly one variable of every clause true.

Complexity is measured on the published CookLevin machine model: a language is a set of binary strings, CookLevin.NPComplete is NP-completeness under polynomial-time many-one reductions, and a function fff from strings to N\mathbb NN is in #P if it counts the accepted certificates of an NP verifier. Every instance is coded with its board size in unary, as the paper assumes (p. 820). NQC\mathrm{NQC}NQC is the language of codes of instances that have a completion, and #NQC(x)\#\mathrm{NQC}(x)#NQC(x) is the number of completions of the instance coded by xxx.

Formalization targets

Goal: Theorem 37

NQC is NP-completeand#NQC is #P-complete.\mathrm{NQC}\ \text{is NP-complete}\qquad\text{and}\qquad \#\mathrm{NQC}\ \text{is \#P-complete}.NQC is NP-completeand#NQC is #P-complete.

Here #P-completeness means membership in #P together with hardness under parsimonious reductions: polynomial-time maps RRR with f(x)=#NQC(R(x))f(x)=\#\mathrm{NQC}(R(x))f(x)=#NQC(R(x)) for every string xxx. The statement is unconditional.

Milestones

  • Theorem 4: Restricted 1-in-3-SAT is NP-complete and #P-complete.
  • Theorem 36, with Lemmas 33–35: variable and clause gadgets give a parsimonious reduction from Restricted 1-in-3-SAT to Problem 5.
  • Theorem 23, with Lemmas 9, 21, 22: laying the gadgets out along one long diagonal reduces Problem 5 to Problem 4.
  • Theorem 19, with Lemmas 17, 18: blocker queens outside the board reduce Problem 4 to Problem 3.
  • Theorem 13, with Lemmas 11, 12: a 19-queens frame filled with modular solutions reduces Problem 3 to n-Queens Completion.
  • Supporting results: Pólya's Theorem 2, Observation 6 on Q19Q_{19}Q19​, Lemma 7 on AnA_nAn​, BnB_nBn​, the Rivin–Zabih Lemma 8, Lemma 25 and Observation 29, and Lemma 30.

Each reduction theorem states both halves of "parsimonious": the paper's construction preserves the number of solutions instance by instance, and a polynomial-time map on codes implements it.

Significance

The result. Theorem 37 shows that the hardness of n-Queens Completion is not an artefact of a particular solver. The same chain shows that Excluded Diagonals and Blocked n-Queens are NP- and #P-complete (Corollary 38), and Corollary 15 (from Lemma 12) shows that every non-attacking set of queens occurs inside some full solution of a larger board. Because the reductions are parsimonious, they also transfer counting hardness: counting completions exactly is as hard as #SAT.

Formalizing it. The result is proved on paper; no part of it is machine-checked. The mission adds the platform's first #P layer (#P, parsimonious reductions, #P-completeness) on top of the published CookLevin NP framework, and the first chessboard objects. Four printed slips are corrected, each with a counterexample: Lemma 8 needs ∣P1∣=∣P∣|P_1|=|P|∣P1​∣=∣P∣; Problem 3 needs C,R⊆{0,…,n−1}C,R\subseteq\{0,\dots,n-1\}C,R⊆{0,…,n−1} (Theorem 13 fails otherwise); Definition 20's D+D^+D+ overshoots 2n−22n-22n−2; Definition 20 is undefined for the empty family.

Difficulty

The obvious argument fails in two places.

First, each reduction is a bijection between solution sets whose correctness depends on exhaustive diagonal bookkeeping: that the 19-queens frame and the embedded modular solutions leave exactly the intended squares free, that the blockers of Definition 16 rule out exactly the chosen diagonals, and that gadgets on a long diagonal interact only through sum-diagonals. Each is a case analysis over many families of squares, with integer arithmetic on both diagonals.

Second, Theorem 4 is cited, not proved, for its hard part. A proof from scratch needs #P-hardness of a 1-in-3-SAT variant, i.e. a parsimonious version of the Cook–Levin theorem. The published CookLevin.sat_npComplete gives the decision half only, and many standard reductions from SAT are not parsimonious. In addition, every map must be shown polynomial-time on the CookLevin machine model, which the paper asserts "by inspection".

Formalization scope

Lean conventions:

  • a queen is ℕ × ℕ (column, row), the difference-diagonal is computed in ℤ, and sets of queens are Finset (ℕ × ℕ);
  • board sizes are n≥1n\ge1n≥1, and an instance of Problem 3 (hence of Problems 4 and 5) has C,R⊆{0,…,n−1}C,R\subseteq\{0,\dots,n-1\}C,R⊆{0,…,n−1};
  • a Problem 5 instance is a List of Problem 4 instances, and its sum-diagonal condition applies to distinct indices;
  • a Problem 6 instance is a duplicate-free list of three-element clauses over natural-number variables, the list order being the clause order and variables ordered increasingly, and a solution is the set of true variables;
  • codes write every number in unary and list a set without repetition; strings that code no valid instance are no-instances with count 000;
  • counts are Set.ncard of solution sets, which are finite.

The constructions (Definitions 10, 16, 20, 24, 26–28, 31) are transcribed as defs, never chosen by Classical.choice. Each reduction theorem fixes its output to the code of the paper's construction.

Trivializing formalizations are ruled out explicitly:

  • the problems are List Bool languages, not Prop-valued predicates;
  • #P membership requires the verifier's polynomial length bound, without which ncard of an infinite set is 000;
  • parsimonious reductions must be CookLevin.IsPolyTimeComputable;
  • counts are of solutions, not of codes;
  • the board size is unary;
  • the goal assumes no hardness hypothesis.

Infrastructure that is reusable beyond this mission: the #P definitions and their closure under composition of parsimonious reductions, and polynomial-time computability of list and arithmetic manipulations on unary codes, for which the published WordRAM simulation (CookLevin.ramPolyTime_to_tm_poly, CookLevin.polyTimeComputable_comp) is the intended route. A parsimonious Cook–Levin theorem would serve every future #P-completeness result. Contributions are welcome on any milestone; the gadget lemmas (33–35) and the arithmetic facts (Lemma 9, Observations 6 and 29, Lemma 30) are self-contained and decidable on finite data.

Selected references

  • I. P. Gent, C. Jefferson, P. Nightingale, Complexity of n-Queens Completion, Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research 59 (2017) 815–848. https://doi.org/10.1613/jair.5512
  • J. Bell, B. Stevens, A survey of known results and research areas for n-queens, Discrete Mathematics 309(1) (2009) 1–31.
  • I. Rivin, R. Zabih, A dynamic programming solution to the n-queens problem, Information Processing Letters 41(5) (1992) 253–256.
  • N. Creignou, M. Hermann, Complexity of generalized satisfiability counting problems, Information and Computation 125(1) (1996) 1–12.
  • S. Porschen, T. Schmidt, E. Speckenmeyer, A. Wotzlaw, XSAT and NAE-SAT of linear CNF classes, Discrete Applied Mathematics 167 (2014) 1–14.
  • C. H. Papadimitriou, Computational Complexity, Addison-Wesley, 1994, Chapter 18.
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Complexity TheoryTheoretical Computer Science·Captain: avi

Integer multiplication: κ = 0.00012612978530233 (Jain round eight)Open Problem

Motivation

Multiplying two binary integers is a basic task in computational complexity. The relevant resource here is the number of individual steps made by a machine whose tapes can only be accessed through moving heads. Harvey and van der Hoeven established an O(nlog⁡n)O(n\log n)O(nlogn) bound in this model. The OpenAI manuscript proposes a positive saving in the exponent of the logarithm. Subsequent constructions explore larger savings. The formalization target is the complete computation and its time bound, including the analytic and implementation arguments needed to connect a finite construction to every input length.

Setting

A deterministic multitape Turing machine has a fixed finite alphabet, a fixed finite state set, and a fixed finite number of tapes. Each tape extends in one direction and has one head. A step reads the symbols under the heads, changes state, writes at those positions, and moves each head by at most one cell. The alphabet contains distinct blank, start-marker, zero, one, and separator symbols. Tape zero is the read-only input tape; tape one is the output tape; further tapes are available for work. The halting state freezes the configuration.

An input consists of two bit strings x,yx,yx,y of the same positive length nnn, separated by #\##. The strings are read most significant bit first, with leading zeros permitted. If val⁡(x)\operatorname{val}(x)val(x) denotes the represented natural number, the required output is exactly the 2n2n2n-bit binary representation of val⁡(x)val⁡(y)\operatorname{val}(x)\operatorname{val}(y)val(x)val(y), padded with leading zeros and followed by blanks. All tapes begin with a preserved start marker. Define L(n)=max⁡(⌈log⁡2n⌉,1)L(n)=\max(\lceil\log_2 n\rceil,1)L(n)=max(⌈log2​n⌉,1).

Target

The full target is

IntMul.KappaBound(0.00012612978530233).\mathrm{IntMul.KappaBound}(0.00012612978530233).IntMul.KappaBound(0.00012612978530233).

This asserts the existence of one machine that computes the exact product correctly for every positive input length, together with constants c>0c>0c>0 and n0n_0n0​ such that every pair of nnn-bit inputs, for n≥n0n\ge n_0n≥n0​ and n≥1n\ge1n≥1, halts within

c n L(n)1−0.00012612978530233c\,n\,L(n)^{1-0.00012612978530233}cnL(n)1−0.00012612978530233

steps. Constants, alphabet, states, and tape count are independent of the input length. The number is an exact real value. Larger κ\kappaκ gives a stronger asymptotic saving because L(n)≥1L(n)\ge1L(n)≥1.

Each entry supplies its own exact numerical value and identifies the construction that motivates it. Historical and new entries use the same machine definition. A proposed value may be recorded while its complete proof is still open; it becomes a proved record only when the goal has a verified proof. Numerical certificates are supporting results with their own scope, and do not establish a complete machine time bound.

This entry: Jain, round eight

The value

κ=126129785302331017=0.00012612978530233  (>2−13)\kappa=\frac{12612978530233}{10^{17}}=0.00012612978530233\;(>2^{-13})κ=101712612978530233​=0.00012612978530233(>2−13)

is the headline conditional witness of S. Jain's integer-mult-kappa, round eight, at revision 5868dc7. It is bound by the complex side (ac=3945999/31250000000a_c=3945999/31250000000ac​=3945999/31250000000).

  • Bit side: the frozen round-seven witness (deferred readouts, VVV leaves, lifted frames and late copies at h=23h=23h=23; Avi Eisenberg's producer from PR #62, compiled by eumemic's joint frame compiler), recompiled with opposite bank orders and a stopped interchange after IceKylin (PR #104).
  • Complex side: a signed reclaim with completed-core sharing and one fix-up child per group.

The repository states that the claim is conditional: it assumes the full upstream multiplication theorem (the OpenAI manuscript and Colkitt's framework) and that stage two is the complement time-reversal of stage one, and it rests on three further interfaces that are stated but not machine-checked there — IceKylin's normal form for alternating residuals, the cost of binary address adapters for the exterior fix-up children, and the row stock of the stopped bit interchange. Its Lean files check only finite rational statements (moment certificates, the stopped mix and the parameter assembly), not the analytic inequalities or the multiplication theorem. It has not had independent review.

Earlier claims appear as milestones: Harvey–van der Hoeven (κ=0\kappa=0κ=0), OpenAI Theorem 1 (2−1822^{-182}2−182), Colkitt's 2−302^{-30}2−30 checkpoint, Jain rounds six and seven, and community PR #62. Each is implied by this goal because L(n)1−κL(n)^{1-\kappa}L(n)1−κ decreases in κ\kappaκ.

Significance

A proof for any positive value would give a strict asymptotic improvement over nlog⁡nn\log nnlogn. Such an improvement would contradict the proposed Ω(nlog⁡n)\Omega(n\log n)Ω(nlogn) lower bound, while remaining consistent with the known upper bound. The tracked value concerns asymptotic growth; it does not measure the runtime of a practical implementation. No claim about a currently fastest implementation follows from a larger saving.

Formalizing the full target connects exact finite calculations to a uniform algorithm. The community repository explicitly treats the original framework and remaining all-size interfaces as assumptions of its current evidence. In this mission those steps must be proved before the goal can be marked Proved. They are not added as hypotheses that would weaken the full target. Earlier published theorem statements and finite certificates may be reused with their original attribution and proof status.

Difficulty

A finite network certificate can establish a concrete role count or a rational margin, but does not itself supply a machine for every input length. A complete proof must establish correctness of the recursive construction, admissibility of its parameters, precision and error guarantees, and the cost of moving data on tapes. Counts of algebraic operations alone do not account for this last resource. The difficult connection is between these separate contracts and the single uniform machine quantified by the goal.

Formalization scope

The goal imports the existing public Definitions.Def_IntMul_MultitapeModel bundle and uses IntMul.KappaBound directly. No alternative machine or cost model is introduced. Natural numbers describe input lengths, head positions, and step counts; real numbers describe the asymptotic constant and exponent. The real power has base at least one. Correctness is required even below the asymptotic threshold. Inputs of length zero and malformed inputs are outside the specified task.

The input and output conventions exclude a machine that merely decides a predicate about the product. The entire output tape must contain the required product and then blanks. Neither failure to halt nor correctness on a finite collection of test inputs meets the target. The work tapes and final head positions are unconstrained. Reusable contributions include machine composition with explicit costs, exact encodings, analytic estimates, and proofs that the finite certificates imply the contracts required by the recursive algorithm. Every such contribution should state its own assumptions and conclusion explicitly.

Selected references

  • D. Harvey and J. van der Hoeven, Integer multiplication in time O(n log n), Annals of Mathematics 193(2), 563–617 (2021). Paper.
  • OpenAI, Integer multiplication below n log n, preprint (23 September 2026), pinned manuscript revision adc7f1241b42e322a6451854ab7e4b4c146bf78a. Source.
  • D. Colkitt and community contributors, A sharper exponent for integer multiplication, research repository (2026), revision 56b66d58297deca1d7dd130247d720e960f77a37. Checkpoint and attribution.
  • S. Jain, Integer multiplication: a conditional witness above 2−132^{-13}2−13 (integer-mult-kappa), research draft (2026), revision 5868dc701a9bec375c9dc5391d992ab3b8c35f3f. Round eight.
163 thms7 active usersReviewed
Complexity TheoryTheoretical Computer Science·Captain: avi

Integer multiplication: κ = 0.00006397891967576 (Jain round seven)Open Problem

Motivation

Multiplying two binary integers is a basic task in computational complexity. The relevant resource here is the number of individual steps made by a machine whose tapes can only be accessed through moving heads. Harvey and van der Hoeven established an O(nlog⁡n)O(n\log n)O(nlogn) bound in this model. The OpenAI manuscript proposes a positive saving in the exponent of the logarithm. Subsequent constructions explore larger savings. The formalization target is the complete computation and its time bound, including the analytic and implementation arguments needed to connect a finite construction to every input length.

Setting

A deterministic multitape Turing machine has a fixed finite alphabet, a fixed finite state set, and a fixed finite number of tapes. Each tape extends in one direction and has one head. A step reads the symbols under the heads, changes state, writes at those positions, and moves each head by at most one cell. The alphabet contains distinct blank, start-marker, zero, one, and separator symbols. Tape zero is the read-only input tape; tape one is the output tape; further tapes are available for work. The halting state freezes the configuration.

An input consists of two bit strings x,yx,yx,y of the same positive length nnn, separated by #\##. The strings are read most significant bit first, with leading zeros permitted. If val⁡(x)\operatorname{val}(x)val(x) denotes the represented natural number, the required output is exactly the 2n2n2n-bit binary representation of val⁡(x)val⁡(y)\operatorname{val}(x)\operatorname{val}(y)val(x)val(y), padded with leading zeros and followed by blanks. All tapes begin with a preserved start marker. Define L(n)=max⁡(⌈log⁡2n⌉,1)L(n)=\max(\lceil\log_2 n\rceil,1)L(n)=max(⌈log2​n⌉,1).

Target

The full target is

IntMul.KappaBound(0.00006397891967576).\mathrm{IntMul.KappaBound}(0.00006397891967576).IntMul.KappaBound(0.00006397891967576).

This asserts the existence of one machine that computes the exact product correctly for every positive input length, together with constants c>0c>0c>0 and n0n_0n0​ such that every pair of nnn-bit inputs, for n≥n0n\ge n_0n≥n0​ and n≥1n\ge1n≥1, halts within

c n L(n)1−0.00006397891967576c\,n\,L(n)^{1-0.00006397891967576}cnL(n)1−0.00006397891967576

steps. Constants, alphabet, states, and tape count are independent of the input length. The number is an exact real value. Larger κ\kappaκ gives a stronger asymptotic saving because L(n)≥1L(n)\ge1L(n)≥1.

Each entry supplies its own exact numerical value and identifies the construction that motivates it. Historical and new entries use the same machine definition. A proposed value may be recorded while its complete proof is still open; it becomes a proved record only when the goal has a verified proof. Numerical certificates are supporting results with their own scope, and do not establish a complete machine time bound.

This entry: Jain, round seven

The value

κ=79973649594712500000000000000=0.00006397891967576  (>2−14)\kappa=\frac{799736495947}{12500000000000000}=0.00006397891967576\;(>2^{-14})κ=12500000000000000799736495947​=0.00006397891967576(>2−14)

is the conditional witness of S. Jain's integer-mult-kappa, round seven, at revision c05adfe, with the sharper moment certificate merged there (research/round7-moment-refinement/). The README's headline for the same construction is the slightly smaller 1599247689723/(2.5⋅1016)≈6.39699×10−51599247689723/(2.5\cdot10^{16})\approx6.39699\times10^{-5}1599247689723/(2.5⋅1016)≈6.39699×10−5; the refinement keeps the frozen round-seven bit network, histogram, complex saving and assembly unchanged, and replaces the reciprocal bound eu≤1/(1−u)e^u\le1/(1-u)eu≤1/(1−u) in the moment certificate by a degree-eight Taylor enclosure, which certifies the bit saving ab=63983013240044/1018a_b=63983013240044/10^{18}ab​=63983013240044/1018.

The construction builds on the OpenAI manuscript and on Colkitt's integer-mult-bounds (it uses the PR #62 producer with interval strips and core-aware pair assembly). Its new ingredients are lifted frames with late copies, deferred readouts, and per-use VVV leaves on the bit side; the complex side is round six's. The repository states that the claim is conditional on the OpenAI manuscript and Colkitt's framework, that stage two (the complement time-reversal of stage one) is assumed rather than machine-checked, and that its Lean files check only finite rational statements (moment certificates and parameter assembly), not the analytic tail inequalities or the multiplication theorem. It has not had independent review.

Earlier claims appear as milestones: Harvey–van der Hoeven (κ=0\kappa=0κ=0), OpenAI Theorem 1 (2−1822^{-182}2−182), Colkitt's 2−302^{-30}2−30 checkpoint, Jain round six (3666565558019/10173666565558019/10^{17}3666565558019/1017) and community PR #62 (0.0000510169201700780.0000510169201700780.000051016920170078). Each is implied by this goal because L(n)1−κL(n)^{1-\kappa}L(n)1−κ decreases in κ\kappaκ.

Significance

A proof for any positive value would give a strict asymptotic improvement over nlog⁡nn\log nnlogn. Such an improvement would contradict the proposed Ω(nlog⁡n)\Omega(n\log n)Ω(nlogn) lower bound, while remaining consistent with the known upper bound. The tracked value concerns asymptotic growth; it does not measure the runtime of a practical implementation. No claim about a currently fastest implementation follows from a larger saving.

Formalizing the full target connects exact finite calculations to a uniform algorithm. The community repository explicitly treats the original framework and remaining all-size interfaces as assumptions of its current evidence. In this mission those steps must be proved before the goal can be marked Proved. They are not added as hypotheses that would weaken the full target. Earlier published theorem statements and finite certificates may be reused with their original attribution and proof status.

Difficulty

A finite network certificate can establish a concrete role count or a rational margin, but does not itself supply a machine for every input length. A complete proof must establish correctness of the recursive construction, admissibility of its parameters, precision and error guarantees, and the cost of moving data on tapes. Counts of algebraic operations alone do not account for this last resource. The difficult connection is between these separate contracts and the single uniform machine quantified by the goal.

Formalization scope

The goal imports the existing public Definitions.Def_IntMul_MultitapeModel bundle and uses IntMul.KappaBound directly. No alternative machine or cost model is introduced. Natural numbers describe input lengths, head positions, and step counts; real numbers describe the asymptotic constant and exponent. The real power has base at least one. Correctness is required even below the asymptotic threshold. Inputs of length zero and malformed inputs are outside the specified task.

The input and output conventions exclude a machine that merely decides a predicate about the product. The entire output tape must contain the required product and then blanks. Neither failure to halt nor correctness on a finite collection of test inputs meets the target. The work tapes and final head positions are unconstrained. Reusable contributions include machine composition with explicit costs, exact encodings, analytic estimates, and proofs that the finite certificates imply the contracts required by the recursive algorithm. Every such contribution should state its own assumptions and conclusion explicitly.

Selected references

  • D. Harvey and J. van der Hoeven, Integer multiplication in time O(n log n), Annals of Mathematics 193(2), 563–617 (2021). Paper.
  • OpenAI, Integer multiplication below n log n, preprint (23 September 2026), pinned manuscript revision adc7f1241b42e322a6451854ab7e4b4c146bf78a. Source.
  • D. Colkitt and community contributors, A sharper exponent for integer multiplication, research repository (2026), revision 56b66d58297deca1d7dd130247d720e960f77a37. Checkpoint and attribution.
  • S. Jain, Integer multiplication: a conditional witness above 2−142^{-14}2−14 (integer-mult-kappa), research draft (2026), revision c05adfe1dfe85326dd6dcf12bfd53f435bd49bf3. Round seven and the sharper moment certificate.
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CombinatoricsOperations ResearchTheoretical Computer Science·Captain: mikedeng1

One-Processor Scheduling with Symmetric Earliness and Tardiness Penalties 1: Minimizing the Total Discrepancy from Preferred Times Is NP-CompleteResearch Paper

Motivation

Scheduling with earliness and tardiness penalties asks for schedules in which a job finishing early is as undesirable as a job finishing late. The model fits production planned for just-in-time delivery, where finished goods held before their due date cost money, and sequences of experiments tied to fixed external events. It departs from classical scheduling, in which finishing early is never penalized.

Garey, Tarjan and Wilfong (Math. Oper. Res. 13 (1988) 330–348) study the symmetric version on one processor: each task has a preferred starting time, and the penalty is the absolute deviation from it. Their §2.1 settles the complexity of the most natural objective, the sum of these deviations, by proving it NP-complete. The result explains why the rest of their paper, and much of the later literature, turns to special cases that can be solved efficiently: a fixed task order, equal task lengths, or the maximum deviation instead of the sum.

A short history of the model:

  • Kanet (1981) minimized total absolute deviation from a common due date that is large enough not to constrain the schedule, by a sorting rule. The special case in the middle of §2.1 is the midtime version of this problem.
  • Garey, Tarjan and Wilfong (1988) proved the problem with arbitrary preferred times NP-complete (THEOREM 1, this mission), and gave an O(Nlog⁡N)O(N\log N)O(NlogN) algorithm for a fixed task order.
  • Hall, Kubiak and Sethi (1991) proved that the common-due-date problem becomes NP-hard when the due date is restrictive. The reduction of THEOREM 1 already uses a common preferred midtime that is not large, together with one extra task that pins the right end.

Setting

There are NNN tasks T1,…,TNT_1,\dots,T_NT1​,…,TN​. Task TiT_iTi​ has a length lil_ili​ and a preferred midtime MiM_iMi​. A schedule SSS assigns every task a starting time si≥0s_i\ge0si​≥0 such that no two tasks overlap on the single processor: for i≠ji\ne ji=j, either si+li≤sjs_i+l_i\le s_jsi​+li​≤sj​ or sj+lj≤sis_j+l_j\le s_isj​+lj​≤si​. Idle time is allowed. The actual midtime of TiT_iTi​ is mi(S)=si+li/2m_i(S)=s_i+l_i/2mi​(S)=si​+li​/2, and the total discrepancy of SSS is

cost(S)=∑i=1N∣mi(S)−Mi∣.\mathrm{cost}(S)=\sum_{i=1}^N |m_i(S)-M_i| .cost(S)=i=1∑N​∣mi​(S)−Mi​∣.

The paper works with midtimes because the special case below is then symmetric. Preferred midtimes and preferred starting times aia_iai​ are interchangeable through ai=Mi−li/2a_i=M_i-l_i/2ai​=Mi​−li​/2.

Total discrepancy (the decision problem). Given N,k∈Z+N,k\in\mathbb Z^+N,k∈Z+ and Mi,li∈Z+M_i,l_i\in\mathbb Z^+Mi​,li​∈Z+, is there a schedule with cost(S)≤k\mathrm{cost}(S)\le kcost(S)≤k?

Even-odd partition. Given positive integers x1<x2<⋯<x2nx_1<x_2<\dots<x_{2n}x1​<x2​<⋯<x2n​, can they be split into two sets of equal sum so that each set contains exactly one of x2i−1,x2ix_{2i-1},x_{2i}x2i−1​,x2i​ for every iii?

The special case. For tasks T0,…,T2nT_0,\dots,T_{2n}T0​,…,T2n​ with 0<l0<l1<⋯<l2n0<l_0<l_1<\dots<l_{2n}0<l0​<l1​<⋯<l2n​ and one common preferred midtime M>∑iliM>\sum_i l_iM>∑i​li​, write A(S)={Ti:mi(S)<M}A(S)=\{T_i: m_i(S)<M\}A(S)={Ti​:mi​(S)<M} and B(S)={Ti:mi(S)>M}B(S)=\{T_i:m_i(S)>M\}B(S)={Ti​:mi​(S)>M}. A schedule is ordered if, on each side of MMM, shorter tasks lie nearer to MMM. The bracket [An,…,A1,T0@M,B1,…,Bn][A_n,\dots,A_1,T_0@M,B_1,\dots,B_n][An​,…,A1​,T0​@M,B1​,…,Bn​] is the schedule that puts T0T_0T0​ at midtime MMM and packs the listed tasks against it in the listed order.

Formalization targets

Goal: THEOREM 1

Partition is NP-complete ⟹ Total discrepancy is NP-complete.\text{Partition is NP-complete}\ \Longrightarrow\ \text{Total discrepancy is NP-complete.}Partition is NP-complete ⟹ Total discrepancy is NP-complete.

The hypothesis is the one result the paper imports (Garey and Johnson, 1979). The conclusion includes membership in NP and polynomial-time many-one reductions from every NP language, with Turing machines as the model of computation.

Milestones, in attack order

  1. Even-odd partition is in NP; the instance x1=1x_1=1x1​=1, x2i=x2i−1+yix_{2i}=x_{2i-1}+y_ix2i​=x2i−1​+yi​, x2i+1=x2i+1x_{2i+1}=x_{2i}+1x2i+1​=x2i​+1 built from a Partition instance YYY is a yes-instance if and only if YYY is; and LEMMA 1, even-odd partition is NP-complete.
  2. The special case: a minimum cost schedule has no gaps and is ordered; LEMMA 2 (some mi(S)=Mm_i(S)=Mmi​(S)=M), LEMMA 3 (∣A(S)∣=∣B(S)∣|A(S)|=|B(S)|∣A(S)∣=∣B(S)∣), LEMMA 4 (m0(S)=Mm_0(S)=Mm0​(S)=M), LEMMA 5 (swapping AiA_iAi​ and BiB_iBi​ in a bracket keeps the cost), LEMMA 6 ({Ai,Bi}={T2i,T2i−1}\{A_i,B_i\}=\{T_{2i},T_{2i-1}\}{Ai​,Bi​}={T2i​,T2i−1​} in a minimum cost bracket), and the minimum cost
k=∑i=1n(l2i+l2i−1)(n−i+12)+l0 n.k=\sum_{i=1}^n(l_{2i}+l_{2i-1})\left(n-i+\tfrac12\right)+l_0\,n .k=i=1∑n​(l2i​+l2i−1​)(n−i+21​)+l0​n.
  1. At the midtime M=12∑i=02nliM=\frac12\sum_{i=0}^{2n}l_iM=21​∑i=02n​li​ used in the reduction, every schedule of T0,…,T2nT_0,\dots,T_{2n}T0​,…,T2n​ costs at least kkk; equality forces the ordered, gap-free form in item 2.
  2. The reduction: the instance D with l0=x1−1l_0=x_1-1l0​=x1​−1, li=xil_i=x_ili​=xi​, l2n+1=2l_{2n+1}=2l2n+1​=2, Mj=M=∑i≤2nli/2M_j=M=\sum_{i\le 2n}l_i/2Mj​=M=∑i≤2n​li​/2, M2n+1=2M+1M_{2n+1}=2M+1M2n+1​=2M+1 has a schedule of cost at most kkk if and only if XXX has an even-odd partition. Total discrepancy is in NP.

Significance

THEOREM 1 is the hardness boundary for one-processor scheduling with symmetric earliness–tardiness penalties and arbitrary preferred times. It is the reason exact algorithms for this objective are enumerative, and the reason polynomial results are sought under extra structure, such as the fixed-order algorithm of the same paper. The special-case lemmas characterize every optimal schedule for a common, unrestrictive midtime, not just one of them: shortest task centered at MMM, the iii-th pair of lengths in the iii-th positions on either side, either member on either side. This characterization holds independently of the reduction.

The result has been proved since 1988, and no machine-checked version of it is known to us. A formalization adds three things. First, the parts the paper calls "straightforward" or "a simple exercise", membership of both problems in NP. Second, the two places where the published argument is imprecise. The instance D has half-integer midtimes and threshold although the decision problem asks for integers, so a correct reduction must rescale. And the special-case lemmas are proved for a large midtime but applied with M=∑ili/2M=\sum_i l_i/2M=∑i​li​/2, so they must be restated for every MMM. Third, a reusable formal treatment of absolute-deviation scheduling objectives and of reductions between number problems written in binary.

Difficulty

The obvious argument fails at the step from the special case to the instance D. The lemmas on pp. 333–336 assume the common midtime is large, so that the constraint si≥0s_i\ge0si​≥0 never binds. In D the midtime is M=∑i=02nli/2M=\sum_{i=0}^{2n}l_i/2M=∑i=02n​li​/2, exactly half the total length, and the reduction works because the constraint binds. The tasks before MMM must fit in [0,M−l0/2][0,M-l_0/2][0,M−l0​/2], and the extra task T2n+1T_{2n+1}T2n+1​ must sit at [2M,2M+2][2M,2M+2][2M,2M+2]. Together these force the two sides to have equal total length. A proof that only cites the large-MMM lemmas proves nothing about D. Conversely, dropping si≥0s_i\ge 0si​≥0 makes the reduction false: put the shorter element of every pair after MMM.

The other obstacle is the complexity bookkeeping. NP-completeness here means Turing machines, binary codes, and polynomial bounds, and a full proof must compute D from the code of XXX, double the times to clear the half-integers, and certify membership in NP for a problem whose schedules have real starting times. The certificate cannot be the real starting times themselves.

Formalization scope

  • Everything is real-valued except the instance codes. Schedules have real starting times si≥0s_i\ge0si​≥0, and integer data are cast to R\mathbb RR. Restricting to integer starting times would be a different problem and is not what is stated.
  • Nonnegative starting times are a standing assumption. The paper uses them ("scheduled between 0 and M−l0/2M-l_0/2M−l0​/2", p. 336) without writing them into the model. Nonoverlap is "one task finishes before the other starts", the reading of "intersect only at their endpoints".
  • Tasks are indexed by Fin N from 000. In the special case TiT_iTi​ is index iii, and the paper's T2i−1,T2iT_{2i-1},T_{2i}T2i−1​,T2i​ (1≤i≤n1\le i\le n1≤i≤n) are the indices 2k+1,2k+22k+1,2k+22k+1,2k+2 for k=i−1k=i-1k=i−1.
  • Languages use the published CookPvsNP_defs (Cook's one-tape Turing machines, NP, NPComplete) and the published ProjSchedTW.Complexity.Encoding (four-letter alphabet and binary codes). This mission defines positivePartitionLang by restricting the imported equal-sum predicate to nonempty lists of positive integers, as on p. 333. Only codes of well-formed instances belong to the even-odd and total discrepancy languages.
  • The goal is not the combinatorial equivalence of milestone 4. It states NP-completeness, so it contains the polynomial-time computation of the reduction and membership in NP. Taking NPComplete evenOddLang as the hypothesis instead would drop LEMMA 1 and is not what is asked.
  • Running times of the algorithms of §2.2–§2.4 are out of scope for this mission, as are all results after §2.1.

Contributions welcome: proofs of any milestone, and reusable lemmas on Turing-machine computability of arithmetic on binary codes, which the two membership results and both reductions need.

Selected references

  • M. R. Garey, R. E. Tarjan, G. T. Wilfong, One-Processor Scheduling with Symmetric Earliness and Tardiness Penalties, Mathematics of Operations Research 13(2):330–348, 1988. https://doi.org/10.1287/moor.13.2.330
  • M. R. Garey, D. S. Johnson, Computers and Intractability: A Guide to the Theory of NP-Completeness, W. H. Freeman, 1979.
  • J. J. Kanet, Minimizing the average deviation of job completion times about a common due date, Naval Research Logistics Quarterly 28(4):643–651, 1981. https://doi.org/10.1002/nav.3800280411
  • N. G. Hall, W. Kubiak, S. P. Sethi, Earliness–tardiness scheduling problems, II: Deviation of completion times about a restrictive common due date, Operations Research 39(5):847–856, 1991. https://doi.org/10.1287/opre.39.5.847
  • S. Cook, The P versus NP problem, Clay Mathematics Institute Millennium Problems, 2000. https://www.claymath.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/pvsnp.pdf
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Dynamic ProgrammingOperations ResearchProbability+1·Captain: mikedeng1

On the Optimal Dividend Problem for a Spectrally Negative Lévy Process I: Optimality of the Barrier Strategy at c* in the Classical Dividend ProblemResearch Paper

Motivation

An insurance company's surplus grows with premiums and falls with claims. In the Cramér–Lundberg model with a positive safety loading, the surplus drifts to +∞+\infty+∞ with probability one. De Finetti (1957) objected that a company does not accumulate capital indefinitely: surplus above some level is paid out to shareholders. He proposed choosing the payout policy to maximize the expected discounted dividends paid before ruin. This is the optimal dividend problem. It is one of the basic stochastic control problems of actuarial mathematics and corporate finance, and it serves as a test case for singular control of processes with jumps.

The classical answer is a barrier strategy: pay out whatever lifts the surplus above a level aaa and nothing else. Jeanblanc and Shiryaev (1995) proved this optimal when the surplus is a Brownian motion with drift, and Gerber and Shiu studied the same Brownian setting. Azcue and Muler (2005) showed that it can fail in the Cramér–Lundberg model, where the optimal policy may be a band strategy. Avram, Palmowski and Pistorius (Ann. Appl. Probab. 17 (2007) 156–180) treated a general spectrally negative Lévy process, a process with stationary independent increments and only downward jumps. They found the value of every barrier strategy in closed form through the scale function of the process and identified the best barrier level c∗c^*c∗. They also gave a verification condition under which the barrier at c∗c^*c∗ is optimal among all strategies. Loeffen (2008) later showed that the condition holds whenever the Lévy measure has a completely monotone density.

Setting

Let X=(Xt)t≥0X=(X_t)_{t\ge0}X=(Xt​)t≥0​ be a spectrally negative Lévy process on a filtered probability space (Ω,F,F,P)(\Omega,\mathcal F,\mathbb F,P)(Ω,F,F,P) with X0=0X_0=0X0​=0 and Lévy triplet (c,σ,ν)(c,\sigma,\nu)(c,σ,ν). Its Laplace exponent is ψ(θ)=log⁡E[eθX1]\psi(\theta)=\log\mathbf E[e^{\theta X_1}]ψ(θ)=logE[eθX1​], finite for θ≥0\theta\ge0θ≥0:

ψ(θ)=cθ+σ22θ2+∫(−∞,0)(eθy−1−θy1{∣y∣<1})ν(dy).\psi(\theta)=c\theta+\tfrac{\sigma^2}{2}\theta^2+\int_{(-\infty,0)}\bigl(e^{\theta y}-1-\theta y\mathbf 1_{\{|y|<1\}}\bigr)\nu(dy).ψ(θ)=cθ+2σ2​θ2+∫(−∞,0)​(eθy−1−θy1{∣y∣<1}​)ν(dy).

Increments after time sss are independent of Fs\mathcal F_sFs​. Initial capital xxx is added to XXX. The standing assumptions are the following: XXX does not have monotone paths, E[X1]>−∞\mathbf E[X_1]>-\inftyE[X1​]>−∞, and either σ>0\sigma>0σ>0, ∫(−1,0)∣y∣ ν(dy)=∞\int_{(-1,0)}|y|\,\nu(dy)=\infty∫(−1,0)​∣y∣ν(dy)=∞, or ν\nuν has a density.

A dividend strategy is a nondecreasing, left-continuous, adapted process LLL with L0=0L_0=0L0​=0. The risk process is Ut=x+Xt−LtU_t=x+X_t-L_tUt​=x+Xt​−Lt​ and the ruin time is σL=inf⁡{t≥0:Ut<0}\sigma^L=\inf\{t\ge0:U_t<0\}σL=inf{t≥0:Ut​<0}. The strategy is admissible (L∈ΠL\in\PiL∈Π) if no lump sum exceeds the current reserves. Its value is

vL(x)=E[∫0σLe−qt dLt],v∗(x)=sup⁡L∈ΠvL(x),v_L(x)=\mathbf E\Bigl[\int_0^{\sigma^L}e^{-qt}\,dL_t\Bigr],\qquad v_*(x)=\sup_{L\in\Pi}v_L(x),vL​(x)=E[∫0σL​e−qtdLt​],v∗​(x)=L∈Πsup​vL​(x),

with discount rate q>0q>0q>0. For C∈[0,∞]C\in[0,\infty]C∈[0,∞], Π≤C\Pi_{\le C}Π≤C​ consists of the admissible strategies that keep Ut≤CU_t\le CUt​≤C for t>0t>0t>0.

The qqq-scale function W=W(q)W=W^{(q)}W=W(q) is the unique continuous nondecreasing function on [0,∞)[0,\infty)[0,∞) with ∫0∞e−θyW(y) dy=1/(ψ(θ)−q)\int_0^\infty e^{-\theta y}W(y)\,dy=1/(\psi(\theta)-q)∫0∞​e−θyW(y)dy=1/(ψ(θ)−q) for large θ\thetaθ. It is extended by W=0W=0W=0 on (−∞,0)(-\infty,0)(−∞,0). The barrier strategy πa\pi_aπa​ reflects x+Xx+Xx+X at the level aaa, paying (x−a)+(x-a)^+(x−a)+ at time 000. The paper computes its value

va(x)=W(x)W′(a) (0≤x≤a),va(x)=x−a+W(a)W′(a) (x>a),v_a(x)=\frac{W(x)}{W'(a)}\ (0\le x\le a),\qquad v_a(x)=x-a+\frac{W(a)}{W'(a)}\ (x>a),va​(x)=W′(a)W(x)​ (0≤x≤a),va​(x)=x−a+W′(a)W(a)​ (x>a),

and the optimal barrier level is c∗=inf⁡{a>0:W′(a)≤W′(x) ∀x>0}c^*=\inf\{a>0: W'(a)\le W'(x)\ \forall x>0\}c∗=inf{a>0:W′(a)≤W′(x) ∀x>0}, read as 000 when this set is empty and W′(0+)≤W′(x)W'(0+)\le W'(x)W′(0+)≤W′(x) for all x>0x>0x>0. The generator is

Γf(x)=σ22f′′(x)+cf′(x)+∫(−∞,0)[f(x+y)−f(x)−f′(x)y1{∣y∣<1}] ν(dy).\Gamma f(x)=\tfrac{\sigma^2}{2}f''(x)+cf'(x)+\int_{(-\infty,0)}[f(x+y)-f(x)-f'(x)y\mathbf 1_{\{|y|<1\}}]\,\nu(dy).Γf(x)=2σ2​f′′(x)+cf′(x)+∫(−∞,0)​[f(x+y)−f(x)−f′(x)y1{∣y∣<1}​]ν(dy).

Formalization targets

Goal: Theorem 2 (p. 14)

Assume σ>0\sigma>0σ>0, or XXX has bounded variation, or vc∗∈C2(0,∞)v_{c^*}\in C^2(0,\infty)vc∗​∈C2(0,∞). Then c∗<∞c^*<\inftyc∗<∞ and:

(i)πc∗∈Π≤c∗,vπc∗(x)=vc∗(x)=sup⁡π∈Π≤c∗vπ(x)(x≥0);\text{(i)}\quad \pi_{c^*}\in\Pi_{\le c^*},\qquad v_{\pi_{c^*}}(x)=v_{c^*}(x)=\sup_{\pi\in\Pi_{\le c^*}}v_\pi(x)\quad(x\ge0);(i)πc∗​∈Π≤c∗​,vπc∗​​(x)=vc∗​(x)=π∈Π≤c∗​sup​vπ​(x)(x≥0); (ii)(Γvc∗−qvc∗)(x)≤0  ∀x>c∗ ⟹ v∗(x)=vc∗(x) (x≥0),  π∗=πc∗.\text{(ii)}\quad (\Gamma v_{c^*}-qv_{c^*})(x)\le0\ \ \forall x>c^*\ \Longrightarrow\ v_*(x)=v_{c^*}(x)\ (x\ge0),\ \ \pi_*=\pi_{c^*}.(ii)(Γvc∗​−qvc∗​)(x)≤0  ∀x>c∗ ⟹ v∗​(x)=vc∗​(x) (x≥0),  π∗​=πc∗​.

The goal fixes no constants: the barrier level and the value function are both given by the scale function of the given process.

Milestones

  • Proposition 1 (p. 7): vπa(x)=W(x)/W′(a)v_{\pi_a}(x)=W(x)/W'(a)vπa​​(x)=W(x)/W′(a) for a>0a>0a>0, x∈[0,a]x\in[0,a]x∈[0,a].
  • Lemma 2(i) (p. 15): c∗<∞c^*<\inftyc∗<∞.
  • Proposition 3(i) (p. 15): va(x)≤vc∗(x)v_a(x)\le v_{c^*}(x)va​(x)≤vc∗​(x) for x∈[0,c∗]x\in[0,c^*]x∈[0,c∗], a≥0a\ge0a≥0.
  • Lemma 3(i) (p. 16): vc∗′(x)≥1v_{c^*}'(x)\ge1vc∗′​(x)≥1 for x>0x>0x>0.
  • Proposition 4(i) (p. 18): a C2C^2C2 (unbounded variation) or C1C^1C1 (bounded variation) solution www of max⁡{Γw−qw,1−w′}=0\max\{\Gamma w-qw,1-w'\}=0max{Γw−qw,1−w′}=0 on (0,C)(0,C)(0,C) dominates sup⁡Π≤Cvπ\sup_{\Pi_{\le C}}v_\pisupΠ≤C​​vπ​.
  • Lemma 4 (p. 20): (Γvc∗−qvc∗)(x)=0(\Gamma v_{c^*}-qv_{c^*})(x)=0(Γvc∗​−qvc∗​)(x)=0 on (0,c∗)(0,c^*)(0,c∗) when c∗>0c^*>0c∗>0.

Significance

The theorem gives an explicit solution to a singular control problem for a general Lévy model. The candidate value function and barrier level are expressed through one special function, W(q)W^{(q)}W(q), and optimality over all strategies reduces to one inequality on (c∗,∞)(c^*,\infty)(c∗,∞). It is the basis of the later literature on scale-function methods in dividend problems (Loeffen 2008, Kyprianou–Rivero–Song 2010, and the refracted and Parisian variants). Part (i) holds with no condition on the Lévy measure. Part (ii) shows exactly where barrier optimality can fail.

The paper's proofs use fluctuation identities (exit problems, excursion theory) and Itô's formula for semimartingales with jumps. None of these is in Mathlib. As far as is known, none of these results has been machine-checked. A formalization would produce a Lévy-process and scale-function layer, a formal model of singular control with jumps and lump-sum payments, and a checked verification argument. Each of these can be reused beyond this paper.

Difficulty

The analytic part is elementary once the value formula (5.1) is available: the choice of c∗c^*c∗, Proposition 3(i) and Lemma 3(i) follow from the shape of W′W'W′. The difficulty lies in the two probabilistic steps. Proposition 1 identifies the value of a reflected process through exit identities for XXX. Those identities rest on excursion theory, or on the martingale property of e−qtW(Xt)e^{-qt}W(X_t)e−qtW(Xt​) up to exit. The verification step, Proposition 4(i), needs Itô's formula for w(Ut)w(U_t)w(Ut​). Here UUU is a jump process controlled by a left-continuous finite-variation process that may itself jump. The change-of-variables formula must also run under only C1C^1C1 regularity when XXX has bounded variation. Just proving that Γw−qw≤0\Gamma w-qw\le0Γw−qw≤0 and w′≥1w'\ge1w′≥1 imply a supermartingale inequality does not settle the question: the lump-sum payments and the jumps of XXX enter the Itô expansion separately and must each be bounded.

Formalization scope

Time is [0,∞)[0,\infty)[0,∞) (ℝ≥0). XXX is a structure carrying the triplet (c,σ,ν)(c,\sigma,\nu)(c,σ,ν) and pathwise càdlàg paths with only downward jumps. It also carries independence of increments from the filtration and stationarity. Its law is fixed by the Laplace transform E[eθXt]=etψ(θ)\mathbf E[e^{\theta X_t}]=e^{t\psi(\theta)}E[eθXt​]=etψ(θ) for θ≥0\theta\ge0θ≥0. The standing assumptions of §2 and (3.3) are bundled as one predicate. The scale function is a hypothesis on a function argument WWW (it is unique). W′(0+)W'(0+)W′(0+) is an extended real, since it is +∞+\infty+∞ for unbounded variation without a Gaussian part.

Values of strategies and value functions lie in [0,∞][0,\infty][0,∞]. The dividend integral is a Lebesgue–Stieltjes integral over [0,σL)∪{0}[0,\sigma^L)\cup\{0\}[0,σL)∪{0}: it counts the lump sum at time 000 and excludes a payment at the ruin instant.

Several conventions are fixed, and each is disclosed in the item it affects:

  • Admissibility. The paper requires Lt+−Lt<UtL_{t+}-L_t<U_tLt+​−Lt​<Ut​. The formalization uses ≤\le≤, because the paper's own strategy of paying out everything at once needs it.
  • Barrier level (5.2). Printed over a>0a>0a>0 and "all xxx", the defining set is empty for Brownian motion with nonpositive drift. The printed set (with x>0x>0x>0) is kept whenever it is nonempty; when it is empty and W′(0+)≤W′(x)W'(0+)\le W'(x)W′(0+)≤W′(x) for all x>0x>0x>0 — the second alternative in the proof of Lemma 2(i) — c∗=0c^*=0c∗=0, and otherwise c∗=∞c^*=\inftyc∗=∞.
  • Printed slips. The integral ∫−10x ν(dx)\int_{-1}^0 x\,\nu(dx)∫−10​xν(dx) in (3.3) is read as ∫∣x∣ ν(dx)\int|x|\,\nu(dx)∫∣x∣ν(dx). In (3.4), e−θxe^{-\theta x}e−θx is read as e−θye^{-\theta y}e−θy, and in Theorem 2(i), πc∗\pi^*_cπc∗​ is read as πc∗\pi_{c^*}πc∗​.
  • Proposition 4(i) is stated for initial capital x≤Cx\le Cx≤C. Beyond CCC, www is unconstrained and the printed claim fails.
  • Lemma 4 carries the smoothness proviso of Theorem 2 on (0,c∗)(0,c^*)(0,c∗).

A trivializing encoding is ruled out: the value is not a real supremum, the barrier strategy is constructed rather than assumed, and c∗<∞c^*<\inftyc∗<∞ is a conclusion.

A complete development needs:

  • Lévy processes and their Laplace exponents;
  • scale functions and the exit identity Ex[e−qT1{XT=a}]=W(x)/W(a)\mathbf E_x[e^{-qT}\mathbf 1_{\{X_T=a\}}]=W(x)/W(a)Ex​[e−qT1{XT​=a}​]=W(x)/W(a);
  • reflected processes;
  • Itô's formula for jump semimartingales with finite-variation controls.

The Lévy and scale-function layer is shared with the companion mission on the bail-out problem. Contributions of general lemmas (Stieltjes integration by parts, optional stopping for càdlàg martingales) are welcome.

Selected references

  • F. Avram, Z. Palmowski, M. R. Pistorius, On the optimal dividend problem for a spectrally negative Lévy process, Ann. Appl. Probab. 17 (2007) 156–180. https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0702893
  • P. Azcue, N. Muler, Optimal reinsurance and dividend distribution policies in the Cramér–Lundberg model, Math. Finance 15 (2005) 261–308.
  • M. Jeanblanc-Picqué, A. N. Shiryaev, Optimization of the flow of dividends, Russian Math. Surveys 50 (1995) 257–277.
  • R. L. Loeffen, On optimality of the barrier strategy in de Finetti's dividend problem for spectrally negative Lévy processes, Ann. Appl. Probab. 18 (2008) 1669–1680.
  • A. E. Kyprianou, Introductory Lectures on Fluctuations of Lévy Processes with Applications, Springer, 2006. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-31343-4
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AlgebraNumber Theory·Captain: quesswho

Collapsible CubicsOpen Problem

Motivation

A polynomial f∈Q[x]f \in \mathbb{Q}[x]f∈Q[x] is split if deg⁡f≥1\deg f \ge 1degf≥1 and f(x)=a∏i=1n(x−ri)f(x) = a\prod_{i=1}^{n}(x - r_i)f(x)=a∏i=1n​(x−ri​) for some a∈Q×a \in \mathbb{Q}^\timesa∈Q× and r1,…,rn∈Qr_1,\dots,r_n \in \mathbb{Q}r1​,…,rn​∈Q. Split polynomials are the simplest non-constant maps defined over Q\mathbb{Q}Q that one can apply to an algebraic number: they are exactly the rational polynomials all of whose roots are rational. The question here is how much such a map can do — whether it can always push an algebraic number back down into Q\mathbb{Q}Q.

Say α\alphaα is kkk-collapsible if there are split f1,…,fkf_1,\dots,f_kf1​,…,fk​ with (fk∘⋯∘f1)(α)∈Q(f_k \circ \cdots \circ f_1)(\alpha) \in \mathbb{Q}(fk​∘⋯∘f1​)(α)∈Q, collapsible if it is 111-collapsible, and eventually collapsible if it is kkk-collapsible for some k≥1k \ge 1k≥1. Problem 3 of Griffin Macris's list of open problems asks whether every algebraic number is eventually collapsible. The two notions come apart at degree 333: Jordi Ribes settled the cubic case of eventual collapsibility using a composition of three split polynomials, and for eventual collapsibility the open frontier is deg⁡α≥4\deg\alpha \ge 4degα≥4. For the one-step notion the picture is different — degrees 111 and 222 are settled, and degree 333 is open. That one-step cubic case is this mission's goal.

Setting

Let α\alphaα be an algebraic number with [Q(α):Q]=3[\mathbb{Q}(\alpha):\mathbb{Q}] = 3[Q(α):Q]=3. After an affine change of variable over Q\mathbb{Q}Q one may assume α\alphaα is a root of a depressed cubic

m(x)=x3+d x+e,d,e∈Q,m(x) = x^3 + d\,x + e, \qquad d, e \in \mathbb{Q},m(x)=x3+dx+e,d,e∈Q,

with discriminant Δ=disc⁡(m)=−4d3−27e2\Delta = \operatorname{disc}(m) = -4d^3 - 27e^2Δ=disc(m)=−4d3−27e2. When Δ>0\Delta > 0Δ>0 the cubic is totally real (three real roots); when Δ<0\Delta < 0Δ<0 it has one real root and a complex-conjugate pair. In the latter case write the roots as

α1=−2u,α2,3=u±iv,d=v2−3u2,e=2u(u2+v2),\alpha_1 = -2u, \qquad \alpha_{2,3} = u \pm iv, \qquad d = v^2 - 3u^2, \quad e = 2u(u^2 + v^2),α1​=−2u,α2,3​=u±iv,d=v2−3u2,e=2u(u2+v2),

and set ψ=arctan⁡(3u/v)\psi = \arctan(3u/v)ψ=arctan(3u/v), the parameter that controls the archimedean obstruction below. Scaling α↦wα\alpha \mapsto w\alphaα↦wα sends (d,e)↦(w2d,w3e)(d,e) \mapsto (w^2 d, w^3 e)(d,e)↦(w2d,w3e), so the single rational invariant

τ=e2/d3\tau = e^2/d^3τ=e2/d3

determines the problem up to scaling: the search space is one rational parameter, not two.

Formalization targets

Goal — every cubic algebraic number is collapsible

∀ α∈C,[Q(α):Q]=3 ⟹ ∃ f split with f(α)∈Q.\forall\, \alpha \in \mathbb{C}, \quad [\mathbb{Q}(\alpha):\mathbb{Q}] = 3 \ \Longrightarrow\ \exists\, f \text{ split with } f(\alpha) \in \mathbb{Q}.∀α∈C,[Q(α):Q]=3 ⟹ ∃f split with f(α)∈Q.

This is the weakest statement that settles the case: it fixes no bound on deg⁡f\deg fdegf, and asserts only that some split fff exists. A version with a degree bound would be strictly stronger and is not the goal, because no such bound is known — indeed the archimedean milestone below shows no uniform one can exist.

Supporting targets

The milestone list runs from the reformulation and the invariance reductions, through the known sufficient conditions, to the two obstructions and the two genuinely open sub-targets. Ordered as they are stated there:

  1. the product criterion — α\alphaα is collapsible iff ∏i(α−ri)∈Q\prod_i(\alpha - r_i) \in \mathbb{Q}∏i​(α−ri​)∈Q for some nonempty finite multiset of rationals, which turns collapsibility into a multiplicative relation in K×/Q×K^\times/\mathbb{Q}^\timesK×/Q×;
  2. affine invariance, and the completeness of τ\tauτ as an invariant of the scaling action, which together justify the reduction to one parameter;
  3. two sufficient conditions: square discriminant, and the power-family condition subsuming it;
  4. three obstructions: gap parity in the totally real case; the archimedean degree bound when Δ<0\Delta < 0Δ<0; and the extension of that bound beyond cubics, to any algebraic number possessing both a real and a non-real conjugate.

The mission also carries, as a plain theorem rather than a milestone, the single open instance x3+6x+1x^3 + 6x + 1x3+6x+1 — the smallest cubic within computational reach for which no collapsing is known. It is an instance of the goal rather than a step toward it, which is why it is not on the attack path.

Significance

A proof of the goal closes the one-step cubic case and, with Ribes's composition result, would give a complete picture at degree 333. A disproof would be at least as informative: a single cubic α\alphaα admitting no split fff with f(α)∈Qf(\alpha) \in \mathbb{Q}f(α)∈Q would separate 111-collapsibility from eventual collapsibility by an explicit example, showing that composition is genuinely necessary and not an artefact of the known proof.

The supporting targets have value independent of the goal. The product criterion is the statement everything else is phrased against. The archimedean bound is the only known mechanism forcing deg⁡f→∞\deg f \to \inftydegf→∞, and it is what rules out a uniform-degree approach.

Status, stated precisely. Six of the eight milestones have machine-checked Lean 4 + Mathlib proofs in the author's development, against a newer Mathlib revision than this mission's environment; restating and reproving them here is a port, not new mathematics, and they are included because the goal cannot be attacked without them. The two archimedean milestones are not proved in that form. For the cubic bound both halves exist — the convexity argument and the Möbius reduction — but the statement in terms of a collapsing polynomial has not been assembled. The extension beyond cubics has not been formalised at all; the argument is the same one, since nothing in it uses cubicness beyond the identification of a single circle parameter, but that observation is not a proof. The instance x3+6x+1x^3 + 6x + 1x3+6x+1 and the goal itself are open.

Difficulty

The obvious approach is to write down a split fff with rational roots and force f(α)∈Qf(\alpha) \in \mathbb{Q}f(α)∈Q by solving for the roots. This works when Δ\DeltaΔ is a rational square, and more generally under the power-family condition, and produces the bulk of the known examples — but it cannot work in general, for a reason that is quantitative rather than technical.

Suppose Δ<0\Delta < 0Δ<0 and f=a∏i(x−ri)f = a\prod_i(x - r_i)f=a∏i​(x−ri​) is split with f(α)∈Qf(\alpha) \in \mathbb{Q}f(α)∈Q. Irreducibility of mmm forces f−cf - cf−c to be divisible by mmm, hence f(α1)=f(α2)≠0f(\alpha_1) = f(\alpha_2) \ne 0f(α1​)=f(α2​)=0, hence ∏iα1−riα2−ri=1\prod_i \frac{\alpha_1 - r_i}{\alpha_2 - r_i} = 1∏i​α2​−ri​α1​−ri​​=1. Each factor lies on a fixed circle through 000 and 111 determined by ψ\psiψ, and a convexity argument on log⁡cos⁡\log\coslogcos then forces

deg⁡f ≥ π/ψ.\deg f \ \ge\ \pi/\psi.degf ≥ π/ψ.

As τ→0+\tau \to 0^+τ→0+ one has ψ→0\psi \to 0ψ→0, so the required degree is unbounded: there is no uniform degree in which to search, and any construction must produce split polynomials of growing degree. This is the central difficulty. For x3+6x+1x^3 + 6x + 1x3+6x+1 the bound already gives deg⁡f≥32\deg f \ge 32degf≥32, which is why that cubic resists the searches that settle its neighbours.

Only one step of this argument is special to cubics: the identification of the circle parameter as 3u/v3u/v3u/v. For an algebraic number of any degree with a real conjugate α1\alpha_1α1​ and a non-real conjugate α2\alpha_2α2​, irreducibility gives the same relation ∏i(α1−ri)/(α2−ri)=1\prod_i (\alpha_1 - r_i)/(\alpha_2 - r_i) = 1∏i​(α1​−ri​)/(α2​−ri​)=1, the images again lie on a circle through 000 and 111, and the parameter is λ=(Re⁡α2−α1)/Im⁡α2\lambda = (\operatorname{Re}\alpha_2 - \alpha_1)/\operatorname{Im}\alpha_2λ=(Reα2​−α1​)/Imα2​, which specialises to 3u/v3u/v3u/v in the depressed-cubic case. The obstruction therefore constrains the whole conjecture, not merely its cubic case, which is why the extension is carried as a milestone in its own right.

In the totally real case (Δ>0\Delta > 0Δ>0) the archimedean argument gives nothing at all — the relevant Möbius maps are real and surject onto R^\widehat{\mathbb{R}}R — and the only known constraint is that each gap between consecutive conjugates contains an even number of roots of fff. Whether degrees stay bounded there is itself unsettled.

Formalization scope

Representation. IsSplit f says 0<deg⁡f0 < \deg f0<degf and f=C a⋅∏r∈rs(X−r)f = C\,a \cdot \prod_{r \in rs}(X - r)f=Ca⋅∏r∈rs​(X−r) for a nonzero rational aaa and a multiset rsrsrs of rationals; multiplicities are therefore allowed and the roots need not be distinct. Collapsible α is stated for α\alphaα in an arbitrary field KKK carrying a Q\mathbb{Q}Q-algebra structure, not only for K=CK = \mathbb{C}K=C, so the results apply verbatim to a root in R\mathbb{R}R, in C\mathbb{C}C, or in Q[x]/(m)\mathbb{Q}[x]/(m)Q[x]/(m). The goal theorem is stated over C\mathbb{C}C, with "cubic" expressed as deg⁡(minpoly⁡Qα)=3\deg(\operatorname{minpoly}_{\mathbb{Q}}\alpha) = 3deg(minpolyQ​α)=3.

Ruling out a trivialisation. Collapsible places no lower bound on deg⁡f\deg fdegf and does not require the value c=f(α)c = f(\alpha)c=f(α) to be nonzero, so one must check that the goal is not satisfiable by degenerate means. It is not: c=0c = 0c=0 would make m∣fm \mid fm∣f, impossible for an irreducible cubic mmm dividing a polynomial that splits over Q\mathbb{Q}Q. Constant fff is excluded by 0<deg⁡f0 < \deg f0<degf. Nothing in the statement is vacuous — the hypotheses of the goal are satisfied by every cubic irrationality.

Conventions in the archimedean milestones. In the cubic bound the parameters u,vu, vu,v enter as real numbers satisfying the factorisation identity, with the normalisation 0<uv0 < uv0<uv; this is not a restriction, since vvv is determined only up to sign and the sign may be chosen. Under it ψ=arctan⁡(3u/v)∈(0,π/2)\psi = \arctan(3u/v) \in (0, \pi/2)ψ=arctan(3u/v)∈(0,π/2), and the conclusion is π/ψ≤deg⁡f\pi/\psi \le \deg fπ/ψ≤degf with deg⁡f\deg fdegf the natural-number degree.

In the general bound the corresponding normalisation is 0<(Re⁡α2−α1)Im⁡α20 < (\operatorname{Re}\alpha_2 - \alpha_1)\operatorname{Im}\alpha_20<(Reα2​−α1​)Imα2​. It forces Im⁡α2≠0\operatorname{Im}\alpha_2 \neq 0Imα2​=0, so α2\alpha_2α2​ is genuinely non-real and λ>0\lambda > 0λ>0, hence ψ∈(0,π/2)\psi \in (0,\pi/2)ψ∈(0,π/2) and no division-by-zero value can arise in the conclusion. Passing to the complex conjugate of α2\alpha_2α2​ flips the sign of both factors, so the condition is a choice of conjugate rather than a restriction — except when Re⁡α2=α1\operatorname{Re}\alpha_2 = \alpha_1Reα2​=α1​, which the hypothesis excludes and which cannot occur for a depressed cubic with Δ<0\Delta<0Δ<0. No degree hypothesis on mmm is needed: possessing both a real and a non-real root already forces deg⁡m≥3\deg m \ge 3degm≥3.

Infrastructure. A complete development needs Polynomial, Multiset, minpoly, and for the archimedean bound Real.arctan, Complex.arg, and strict concavity of log⁡cos⁡\log\coslogcos on (−π/2,π/2)(-\pi/2, \pi/2)(−π/2,π/2). The convexity and Möbius lemmas are reusable well beyond this mission — they bound the number of factors in any product of complex numbers constrained to a circle through the origin. Contributions of any of the supporting targets are welcome independently of the goal; so is a disproof, and so is an explicit collapsing of x3+6x+1x^3 + 6x + 1x3+6x+1 of any degree.

Selected references

  • Griffin Macris, List of open problems, Problem 3. https://sites.google.com/view/griffinmacris/open-problems
  • Miles, Collapsible algebraic numbers, 2026. https://quesswho.github.io/miles-blog/2026/08/20/collapsible/ — source of the definitions of split, kkk-collapsible, collapsible and eventually collapsible used above, of Ribes's cubic result for eventual collapsibility, and of the statement that the degree-333 case of one-step collapsibility is open.
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CombinatoricsGraph Theory·Captain: Gabewhigham

Conway's 99-graph problemOpen Problem

Motivation

A strongly regular graph with parameters (n,k,λ,μ)(n,k,\lambda,\mu)(n,k,λ,μ) is a finite simple graph on nnn vertices in which every vertex has exactly kkk neighbours, every pair of adjacent vertices has exactly λ\lambdaλ common neighbours, and every pair of non-adjacent vertices has exactly μ\muμ common neighbours. For most parameter tuples the elementary counting and integrality conditions already decide existence; the interesting cases are those that survive every known feasibility test and still resist construction. The tuple (99,14,1,2)(99,14,1,2)(99,14,1,2) is the smallest such case in the family λ=1\lambda = 1λ=1, μ=2\mu = 2μ=2, and its existence has been open for more than fifty years. John Horton Conway offered $1000 for a resolution, as one of five problems posed at the 2014 DIMACS conference on Challenges of Identifying Integer Sequences (Conway, Five $1,000 Problems (Update 2017)).

Timeline of the problem and of what is known about it:

  • 1969/1971 — the parameter set is raised by Norman Biggs in his Southampton lectures (Finite Groups of Automorphisms, LMS Lecture Note Series 6, p. 111).
  • 1973 — Berlekamp, van Lint and Seidel construct a strongly regular graph with parameters (243,22,1,2)(243,22,1,2)(243,22,1,2) as the coset graph of the perfect ternary Golay code, settling one of the five feasible parameter tuples in this family.
  • 1975 — the existence question appears as Problem 7 (attributed to J. J. Seidel) in R. K. Guy's problem list, The Geometry of Metric and Linear Spaces, Springer LNM 490, pp. 237–238; Conway had worked on it by then.
  • 1984 — H. A. Wilbrink, On the (99,14,1,2)(99,14,1,2)(99,14,1,2) strongly regular graph, shows that such a graph cannot be vertex-transitive: no group of automorphisms can act transitively on its 99 vertices.
  • 1988 — Brouwer and Neumaier, A remark on partial linear spaces of girth 5 with an application to strongly regular graphs, Combinatorica 8, 57–61.
  • 2004 — Makhnev and Minakova, On automorphisms of strongly regular graphs with λ=1\lambda=1λ=1, μ=2\mu=2μ=2, Discrete Math. Appl. 14(2), and 2011 — Behbahani and Lam, Strongly regular graphs with non-trivial automorphisms, Discrete Math. 311, 132–144: further restrictions on the possible automorphism groups.
  • 2014/2017 — Conway's prize offer publicises the problem.

No graph with these parameters has been found, and no non-existence proof is known.

Setting

Fix a finite vertex set VVV and a simple graph ggg on VVV (irreflexive, symmetric adjacency Adj\mathrm{Adj}Adj). For vertices v,wv,wv,w write N(v)={u:Adj(v,u)}N(v) = \{u : \mathrm{Adj}(v,u)\}N(v)={u:Adj(v,u)} for the neighbourhood of vvv and N(v)∩N(w)N(v)\cap N(w)N(v)∩N(w) for the set of common neighbours. The graph ggg is strongly regular with parameters (n,k,λ,μ)(n,k,\lambda,\mu)(n,k,λ,μ), written IsSRGWith g n k λ μ\mathrm{IsSRGWith}\ g\ n\ k\ \lambda\ \muIsSRGWith g n k λ μ, when

  • ∣V∣=n|V| = n∣V∣=n;
  • ∣N(v)∣=k|N(v)| = k∣N(v)∣=k for every vertex vvv;
  • ∣N(v)∩N(w)∣=λ|N(v)\cap N(w)| = \lambda∣N(v)∩N(w)∣=λ whenever vvv and www are adjacent;
  • ∣N(v)∩N(w)∣=μ|N(v)\cap N(w)| = \mu∣N(v)∩N(w)∣=μ whenever v≠wv \neq wv=w are non-adjacent.

The case λ=1\lambda = 1λ=1 says that every edge lies in exactly one triangle — equivalently, the neighbourhood of each vertex induces a perfect matching, so such graphs are locally linear. The case μ=2\mu = 2μ=2 says that every non-adjacent pair is the pair of opposite corners of exactly one 444-cycle. Conway's problem asks for (n,k)=(99,14)(n,k) = (99,14)(n,k)=(99,14) with these two local conditions.

Counting paths of length two from a fixed vertex gives k(k−λ−1)=(n−k−1)μk(k-\lambda-1) = (n-k-1)\muk(k−λ−1)=(n−k−1)μ, which for λ=1\lambda=1λ=1, μ=2\mu=2μ=2 reduces to 2n=k2+22n = k^2 + 22n=k2+2; with k=14k = 14k=14 this yields n=99n = 99n=99. Writing AAA for the adjacency matrix, III for the identity and JJJ for the all-ones matrix, strong regularity is equivalent to the matrix identity A2=kI+λA+μ(J−I−A)A^2 = kI + \lambda A + \mu(J - I - A)A2=kI+λA+μ(J−I−A), which for (99,14,1,2)(99,14,1,2)(99,14,1,2) reads A2+A=12I+2JA^2 + A = 12I + 2JA2+A=12I+2J; the eigenvalues of AAA other than k=14k=14k=14 are then 333 and −4-4−4, and integrality of their multiplicities (545454 and 444444) is one of the feasibility conditions that (99,14,1,2)(99,14,1,2)(99,14,1,2) passes.

Formalization targets

Goal

∃ α, ∃ g a simple graph on α,IsSRGWith g 99 14 1 2.\exists\ \alpha,\ \exists\ g \text{ a simple graph on } \alpha,\quad \mathrm{IsSRGWith}\ g\ 99\ 14\ 1\ 2 .∃ α, ∃ g a simple graph on α,IsSRGWith g 99 14 1 2.

The goal is Mathlib's own proof_wanted conway_99 in Mathlib/Combinatorics/SimpleGraph/StronglyRegular.lean, stated verbatim: existence of a finite type carrying a strongly regular graph with parameters (99,14,1,2)(99,14,1,2)(99,14,1,2). A resolution in either direction is welcome — a proof settles the existence half, and a proof of the negation settles the non-existence half; the platform records the two as proof and disproof of the same statement.

Supporting targets

2n=k2+2,k even,k∈{2,4,14,22,112,994}2n = k^2 + 2, \qquad k \text{ even}, \qquad k \in \{2,4,14,22,112,994\}2n=k2+2,k even,k∈{2,4,14,22,112,994}

for every strongly regular graph with λ=1\lambda = 1λ=1, μ=2\mu = 2μ=2: the counting identity, local linearity, and the integrality restriction that cuts the family down to five non-degenerate parameter tuples.

∃ g, IsSRGWith g 9 4 1 2,∃ g, IsSRGWith g 243 22 1 2\exists\, g,\ \mathrm{IsSRGWith}\ g\ 9\ 4\ 1\ 2, \qquad \exists\, g,\ \mathrm{IsSRGWith}\ g\ 243\ 22\ 1\ 2∃g, IsSRGWith g 9 4 1 2,∃g, IsSRGWith g 243 22 1 2

the two members of the family that are known to exist: the 3×33\times 33×3 rook's graph (the Paley graph on 999 vertices) and the Berlekamp–van Lint–Seidel graph.

∣E(g)∣=693,∣{triangles of g}∣=231,A2+A=12I+2J,g not vertex-transitive|E(g)| = 693, \qquad |\{\text{triangles of } g\}| = 231, \qquad A^2 + A = 12I + 2J, \qquad g \text{ not vertex-transitive}∣E(g)∣=693,∣{triangles of g}∣=231,A2+A=12I+2J,g not vertex-transitive

structural consequences for a hypothetical 999999-graph, the last one being Wilbrink's theorem.

Significance

A (99,14,1,2)(99,14,1,2)(99,14,1,2) graph, if it exists, is a locally linear graph of maximal density in its parameter range and a partial linear space of girth 555 with 999999 points and 231231231 lines of size 333; its existence would also produce new association schemes and new examples for the general classification of strongly regular graphs. A non-existence proof would be the first case in this family ruled out by anything other than the classical feasibility conditions, and would say something new about how far local conditions (λ=1\lambda=1λ=1, μ=2\mu=2μ=2) constrain global structure.

Nothing in this mission is presently formalized. Mathlib defines SimpleGraph.IsSRGWith, proves the counting identity IsSRGWith.param_eq, the complement rule IsSRGWith.compl, and the matrix identity IsSRGWith.matrix_eq, and records the 999999-graph problem as a proof_wanted. The supporting targets are of three kinds: results that are proved in the literature and only need formalizing (existence at (9,4,1,2)(9,4,1,2)(9,4,1,2) and (243,22,1,2)(243,22,1,2)(243,22,1,2); Wilbrink's non-vertex-transitivity; the integrality restriction on kkk); routine consequences that supply reusable infrastructure (edge and triangle counts, the spectral identity, evenness of kkk); and the goal itself, which is open mathematics.

Difficulty

The obvious approaches fail for concrete reasons. Exhaustive search is out of range: the graph has 693693693 edges among (992)=4851\binom{99}{2} = 4851(299​)=4851 pairs, and no isomorph-free generation of locally linear graphs on 999999 vertices is feasible. Algebraic constructions are blocked by Wilbrink's theorem — the graph cannot be vertex-transitive, so it is not a Cayley graph and cannot be produced by the group-theoretic constructions that yield most known strongly regular graphs, including the two that work at (9,4,1,2)(9,4,1,2)(9,4,1,2) and (243,22,1,2)(243,22,1,2)(243,22,1,2). On the non-existence side, every classical feasibility test (the counting identity, integrality of the eigenvalue multiplicities, the Krein conditions, the absolute bound) is passed by (99,14,1,2)(99,14,1,2)(99,14,1,2), so a proof of non-existence needs an argument that does not factor through the parameters alone.

Formalization scope

All statements are phrased with Mathlib's SimpleGraph.IsSRGWith on a Fintype vertex type with DecidableRel adjacency, and use Fintype.card, SimpleGraph.edgeFinset, SimpleGraph.cliqueFinset 3 (triangles as 333-cliques), SimpleGraph.adjMatrix over Z\mathbb{Z}Z, and graph isomorphisms g ≃g g for automorphisms. The goal quantifies over α : Type together with a Fintype α instance, so the vertex set is finite by construction and the empty type does not satisfy the cardinality clause; the statement is therefore not vacuously satisfiable. Note that Mathlib's definition constrains λ\lambdaλ only through pairs that are actually adjacent and μ\muμ only through pairs that are actually distinct and non-adjacent, so degenerate small graphs (the one-vertex graph, K3K_3K3​) do satisfy IsSRGWith with λ=1\lambda = 1λ=1, μ=2\mu = 2μ=2; the supporting statements carry the cardinality hypotheses (0<n0 < n0<n, 1<n1 < n1<n) that exclude them where needed, and the degenerate degree k=2k = 2k=2 is listed explicitly in the classification of feasible degrees.

Infrastructure a complete development needs, and which is reusable beyond this mission: interface lemmas for counting common neighbours in a strongly regular graph; the spectral theory of the adjacency matrix (multiplicities of the two non-principal eigenvalues, and their integrality), which is the missing ingredient for the classification of feasible degrees; a Lean construction of the perfect ternary Golay code and its coset graph, for the (243,22,1,2)(243,22,1,2)(243,22,1,2) case; and decision procedures for strong regularity of an explicitly given small graph, for the (9,4,1,2)(9,4,1,2)(9,4,1,2) case. Contributions to any of these are welcome, as are partial non-existence results (for instance, restrictions on automorphisms of prime order) submitted as separate statements.

Selected references

  • N. Biggs, Finite Groups of Automorphisms: Course Given at the University of Southampton, October–December 1969, London Mathematical Society Lecture Note Series 6, Cambridge University Press, 1971, p. 111.
  • E. R. Berlekamp, J. H. van Lint, J. J. Seidel, A strongly regular graph derived from the perfect ternary Golay code, in: A Survey of Combinatorial Theory, North-Holland, 1973, pp. 25–30.
  • R. K. Guy, Problems, in: The Geometry of Metric and Linear Spaces, Springer Lecture Notes in Mathematics 490, 1975, pp. 233–244 (Problem 7, J. J. Seidel, pp. 237–238). doi:10.1007/BFb0081147
  • H. A. Wilbrink, On the (99,14,1,2)(99,14,1,2)(99,14,1,2) strongly regular graph, in: Papers dedicated to J. J. Seidel, EUT Report 84-WSK-03, Eindhoven University of Technology, 1984, pp. 342–355. PDF
  • A. E. Brouwer, A. Neumaier, A remark on partial linear spaces of girth 5 with an application to strongly regular graphs, Combinatorica 8 (1988), 57–61. doi:10.1007/BF02122552
  • A. A. Makhnev, I. M. Minakova, On automorphisms of strongly regular graphs with λ=1\lambda=1λ=1, μ=2\mu=2μ=2, Discrete Mathematics and Applications 14 (2004), no. 2. doi:10.1515/156939204872374
  • M. Behbahani, C. Lam, Strongly regular graphs with non-trivial automorphisms, Discrete Mathematics 311 (2011), 132–144. doi:10.1016/j.disc.2010.10.005
  • J. H. Conway, Five $1,000 Problems (Update 2017), OEIS. PDF
24 thms7 active usersReviewed
Calculus of VariationsPure Mathematics·Captain: ShouqiaoWang

Orders of Harmonic Maps into Euclidean BuildingsResearch Paper

Motivation

Harmonic maps into singular nonpositively curved spaces arise in geometric analysis, rigidity theory, and the study of group actions on buildings. Near a point in the domain, their infinitesimal growth is measured by an order, obtained from an Almgren-type frequency quotient. For smooth targets that order is tied to familiar Taylor expansion data. Euclidean buildings are instead assembled from Euclidean apartments along reflection walls, so a map can branch through a singular link and a priori might exhibit a much less controlled spectrum of homogeneities. Breiner and Dees prove that, for maps from surfaces, this spectrum is discrete and is governed by the finite rotational Weyl group of the building. The mission formalizes their headline classification theorem, Theorem 1.1 of Breiner--Dees.

The discreteness matters because frequency information is a basic input to stratification and regularity arguments for singular harmonic maps. A finite list of possible denominators prevents homogeneities from accumulating arbitrarily and isolates rank-one behavior. The formal target makes explicit the nonconstant condition used by the source paper's tangent-map reduction. Without it, the usual numerator and denominator of the frequency quotient both vanish for a constant map, so its order is not defined.

Setting

A Euclidean Coxeter complex consists of Euclidean space together with an affine reflection group. Taking the linear parts of its affine isometries produces a finite rotational reflection group WWW. A Euclidean building of type WWW is a complete metric space covered by isometric Euclidean apartments whose overlaps are related by elements of the affine Weyl group; the atlas is required to contain the relevant geodesic segments, rays, and lines and to be maximal with these compatibility properties.

The domain is a connected open subset DDD of a complex one-dimensional manifold, hence a Riemann surface domain. The formalization uses a concrete Korevaar--Schoen-style metric Sobolev energy built from normalized local difference quotients and Lebesgue area in charts. A map u:D→Xu:D\to Xu:D→X is harmonic when it has finite local energy and minimizes that energy against competitors with the same trace. For x0∈Dx_0\in Dx0​∈D and small radii rrr, the energy and boundary moment determine a frequency quotient. When its limit exists with positive denominator, that limit is the order Ord⁡u(x0)\operatorname{Ord}_u(x_0)Ordu​(x0​).

Formalization targets

Main classification

For a nonconstant energy-minimizing harmonic map u:D→Xu:D\to Xu:D→X and any x0∈Dx_0\in Dx0​∈D, prove that the order is defined and that there are positive integers m,km,km,k such that

Ord⁡u(x0)=mk,k∣∣W∣.\operatorname{Ord}_u(x_0)=\frac{m}{k}, \qquad k\mid |W|.Ordu​(x0​)=km​,k∣∣W∣.

If the building has rank one, prove the sharper form

Ord⁡u(x0)=m2for some integer m≥2.\operatorname{Ord}_u(x_0)=\frac{m}{2} \qquad\text{for some integer }m\ge 2.Ordu​(x0​)=2m​for some integer m≥2.

The same theorem also records the small-scale energy and positive-boundary-moment facts needed for the order to be meaningful; these are conclusions, not assumptions supplied by a solver.

Significance

The result identifies a purely algebraic constraint on an analytic singularity invariant: every denominator divides the order of the finite rotational Weyl group. In rank one, where the target is a tree or an R\mathbb RR-tree, it recovers the half-integer spectrum and its lower bound. This converts an apparently continuous local invariant into a discrete one determined by the building type.

Formalizing the theorem requires reusable infrastructure that is largely absent from current Mathlib: concrete Euclidean-building atlases, metric-valued Sobolev energy, trace and boundary-moment constructions, harmonic energy minimization, frequency quotients, and homogeneous tangent-map interfaces. The paper theorem is proved in ordinary mathematics; the open task is to replace the single sorry in the target with a machine-checked Lean proof. A completed development would provide components useful for other singular-target harmonic-map and CAT(0) formalizations.

Difficulty

The target is not a direct consequence of treating the building as a Euclidean vector space. A harmonic map can cross apartment walls, and a single chart need not contain the image of a punctured neighborhood. The local problem must respect both metric energy and Weyl-group compatibility. Moreover, the frequency quotient is defined through limiting analytic quantities, while the conclusion is an exact rational arithmetic classification. Bridging those levels requires controlling tangent maps and the geometry of directions in the building rather than merely proving monotonicity of the frequency.

The rank-one clause is not obtained by substituting ∣W∣=2|W|=2∣W∣=2 into the general statement alone: it also asserts m≥2m\ge2m≥2. The formal proof therefore must preserve the nonconstant hypothesis and the positivity information that rules out the degenerate zero-order case.

Formalization scope

The Lean bundle fixes a complex one-dimensional manifold model for the source, a genuine complete metric target, a finite affine reflection group acting by Euclidean isometries, and an explicit building atlas. The rotational group WWW is the image of the affine group under taking linear parts, so ∣W∣|W|∣W∣ is not an arbitrary external number. The domain carries a point x0x_0x0​ and is nonempty by construction. The map is required to be nonconstant on the domain; this is the necessary explicit repair of the printed headline, whose later reduction theorem uses the same condition.

Energy, trace, boundary moment, frequency, and order are transparent definitions tied to the supplied geometry. In particular, the caller cannot choose a zero measure or an unrelated predicate to make the target vacuous. The theorem must establish finite small-scale energy, positivity of the boundary moment, existence of the frequency limit, and its classification. Solvers may contribute supporting files for metric Sobolev estimates, tangent-map compactness, homogeneous harmonic-map classification, or finite-reflection-group lemmas, provided they preserve the exact conventions in the definition bundle.

Selected references

  • Christine Breiner and Ben K. Dees, On the Possible Orders of Harmonic Maps into Euclidean Buildings, Calculus of Variations and Partial Differential Equations, 2026, Theorem 1.1 and Sections 2--4. DOI
  • Mikhail Gromov and Richard Schoen, Harmonic Maps into Singular Spaces and p-adic Superrigidity for Lattices in Groups of Rank One, Publications Mathématiques de l'IHÉS 76 (1992), 165--246. EuDML
76 thms7 active users
Convex OptimizationOperations ResearchOptimization·Captain: iris

Stochastic Linear Programming: Models, Theory, and Computation I: a saddle point of the Lagrangian of a convex program solves both the primal and the dual problemTextbook

Why optimality conditions open a book on stochastic programming

Kall and Mayer's Stochastic Linear Programming: Models, Theory, and Computation (Kluwer/Springer, 2005) reduces most stochastic models to deterministic optimization problems. Chance-constrained problems become nonlinear programs with convex constraint functions, and the regularized decomposition methods for recourse problems solve a quadratic master program at every iteration. Chapter 1, §3 therefore collects what the rest of the book needs from nonlinear programming: subgradients of convex functions, the regularity conditions under which local information certifies global optimality, the Karush–Kuhn–Tucker (KKT) conditions, and the saddle point theorem for the Lagrange function.

This is the first mission of a series that formalizes the book chapter by chapter. It formalizes Chapter 1, §3–§3.1 (printed pp.60–66), together with the Farkas lemma of §2 (p.21) on which the KKT proof rests.

The results are classical: Karush (1939) and Kuhn and Tucker (1951) for the multiplier conditions, Slater (1950) for the interior-point regularity condition, Farkas (1902) for the theorem of the alternative. The book cites Luenberger for the saddle point theorem and Rockafellar's Convex Analysis for subdifferentials.

Setting

The object is the convex program

min⁡f(x)s.t.gi(x)≤0, i=1,…,m,(3.1)\min f(x)\quad\text{s.t.}\quad g_i(x)\le 0,\ i=1,\dots,m, \tag{3.1}minf(x)s.t.gi​(x)≤0, i=1,…,m,(3.1)

where f,g1,…,gm:Rn→Rf,g_1,\dots,g_m:\mathbb R^n\to\mathbb Rf,g1​,…,gm​:Rn→R are convex and, from p.62 on, continuously differentiable. Its feasible set is B={x∣gi(x)≤0 ∀i}\mathcal B=\{x\mid g_i(x)\le0\ \forall i\}B={x∣gi​(x)≤0 ∀i}, and a point x^\hat xx^ solves (3.1) if x^∈B\hat x\in\mathcal Bx^∈B and f(x^)≤f(y)f(\hat x)\le f(y)f(x^)≤f(y) for all y∈By\in\mathcal By∈B. The active set at x^\hat xx^ is I(x^)={i∣gi(x^)=0}I(\hat x)=\{i\mid g_i(\hat x)=0\}I(x^)={i∣gi​(x^)=0}.

Two regularity conditions are compared. RC 0 requires that at every optimum x^\hat xx^, every direction zzz with zT∇gi(x^)≤0z^{\mathsf T}\nabla g_i(\hat x)\le0zT∇gi​(x^)≤0 for all i∈I(x^)i\in I(\hat x)i∈I(x^) has zT∇f(x^)≥0z^{\mathsf T}\nabla f(\hat x)\ge0zT∇f(x^)≥0. RC 1, the Slater condition, requires a point x~\tilde xx~ with gi(x~)<0g_i(\tilde x)<0gi​(x~)<0 for all iii.

The KKT conditions (3.3) for a pair (x^,u^)∈Rn×Rm(\hat x,\hat u)\in\mathbb R^n\times\mathbb R^m(x^,u^)∈Rn×Rm are

∇f(x^)+∑i=1mu^i∇gi(x^)=0,gi(x^)≤0,u^i gi(x^)=0,u^≥0.\nabla f(\hat x)+\sum_{i=1}^m\hat u_i\nabla g_i(\hat x)=0,\qquad g_i(\hat x)\le0,\qquad \hat u_i\,g_i(\hat x)=0,\qquad \hat u\ge0 .∇f(x^)+i=1∑m​u^i​∇gi​(x^)=0,gi​(x^)≤0,u^i​gi​(x^)=0,u^≥0.

The Lagrange function is L(x,u)=f(x)+∑iuigi(x)L(x,u)=f(x)+\sum_i u_ig_i(x)L(x,u)=f(x)+∑i​ui​gi​(x). A saddle point is a pair (x^,u^≥0)(\hat x,\hat u\ge0)(x^,u^≥0) with L(x^,u)≤L(x^,u^)≤L(x,u^)L(\hat x,u)\le L(\hat x,\hat u)\le L(x,\hat u)L(x^,u)≤L(x^,u^)≤L(x,u^) for all u≥0u\ge0u≥0 and all xxx (3.6). The dual function is θ(u)=inf⁡xL(x,u)\theta(u)=\inf_xL(x,u)θ(u)=infx​L(x,u) and the primal function is ϕ(x)=sup⁡u≥0L(x,u)\phi(x)=\sup_{u\ge0}L(x,u)ϕ(x)=supu≥0​L(x,u).

For a convex φ:Rn→R\varphi:\mathbb R^n\to\mathbb Rφ:Rn→R, a subgradient at xxx is a ggg with gT(z−x)≤φ(z)−φ(x)g^{\mathsf T}(z-x)\le\varphi(z)-\varphi(x)gT(z−x)≤φ(z)−φ(x) for all zzz, and the subdifferential ∂φ(x)\partial\varphi(x)∂φ(x) is the set of all subgradients (Definition 3.2).

Formalization targets

Goal: the saddle point theorem (Proposition 3.5, p.66)

If (x^,u^≥0)(\hat x,\hat u\ge0)(x^,u^≥0) is a saddle point of the Lagrange function of (3.1), then

max⁡u≥0 inf⁡x∈RnL(x,u)=min⁡x∈Rn sup⁡u≥0L(x,u),(3.7)\max_{u\ge0}\ \inf_{x\in\mathbb R^n}L(x,u)=\min_{x\in\mathbb R^n}\ \sup_{u\ge0}L(x,u),\tag{3.7}u≥0max​ x∈Rninf​L(x,u)=x∈Rnmin​ u≥0sup​L(x,u),(3.7)

and (x^,u^)(\hat x,\hat u)(x^,u^) solves each of the two problems: u^\hat uu^ attains the maximum and x^\hat xx^ the minimum.

Milestones, in the order of the text

  1. Proposition 3.1: a convex φ:Rn→R\varphi:\mathbb R^n\to\mathbb Rφ:Rn→R is continuous (published; referenced).
  2. Proposition 3.2: ∂φ(x)\partial\varphi(x)∂φ(x) is nonempty, convex, closed and bounded; φ\varphiφ is differentiable at xxx with gradient g^\hat gg^​ iff ∂φ(x)={g^}\partial\varphi(x)=\{\hat g\}∂φ(x)={g^​}; and for f(x)=ψ(d+Dx)f(x)=\psi(d+Dx)f(x)=ψ(d+Dx) the chain rule ∂f(x)=DT∂ψ(d+Dx)\partial f(x)=D^{\mathsf T}\partial\psi(d+Dx)∂f(x)=DT∂ψ(d+Dx) holds.
  3. Proposition 3.3: for differentiable φ\varphiφ, convexity is equivalent to (y−x)T∇φ(x)≤φ(y)−φ(x)(y-x)^{\mathsf T}\nabla\varphi(x)\le\varphi(y)-\varphi(x)(y−x)T∇φ(x)≤φ(y)−φ(x) (published; referenced).
  4. The necessary condition (p.62): at an optimum, zT∇gi(x^)<0z^{\mathsf T}\nabla g_i(\hat x)<0zT∇gi​(x^)<0 on I(x^)I(\hat x)I(x^) implies zT∇f(x^)≥0z^{\mathsf T}\nabla f(\hat x)\ge0zT∇f(x^)≥0.
  5. Remark 3.1: linear constraints satisfy RC 0, and RC 0 fails for min⁡{x∈R1∣x2≤0}\min\{x\in\mathbb R^1\mid x^2\le0\}min{x∈R1∣x2≤0}.
  6. For convex problems RC 1 implies RC 0. The Slater condition needs to hold strictly for the nonlinear constraints only.
  7. Proposition 2.13 (Farkas lemma) and Proposition 3.4 (KKT conditions characterize optimality under RC 1). Both are published and referenced.
  8. The KKT conditions (3.5) for min⁡{f(x)∣g(x)≤0, x≥0}\min\{f(x)\mid g(x)\le0,\ x\ge0\}min{f(x)∣g(x)≤0, x≥0}.
  9. A KKT point is a saddle point (3.6). The primal problem min⁡xsup⁡u≥0L(x,u)\min_x\sup_{u\ge0}L(x,u)minx​supu≥0​L(x,u) is (3.1).

Significance

Proposition 3.4 is what makes the convex reformulations of later chapters checkable. A point satisfying a finite system of equations and inequalities is certified globally optimal. Under the Slater condition, every optimum carries such a certificate. The saddle point theorem recasts the same multipliers as an optimal solution of a dual problem with equal optimal value. Its milestone (3.6) connects it back to the KKT conditions. Proposition 3.2 supplies the calculus that Chapter 3 applies to the nonsmooth expected recourse function.

The status is mixed. The KKT characterization (Proposition 3.4) is already formalized on the platform as a more general statement with additional linear equality constraints, and so are the gradient inequality (Proposition 3.3), the continuity of finite convex functions (Proposition 3.1) and the Farkas lemma. These enter as references. The rest has no machine-checked proof on the platform: the subdifferential facts of Proposition 3.2 (the chain rule in particular), the regularity conditions RC 0 and RC 1 with Remark 3.1, the sign-constrained KKT system (3.5), and the saddle point theorem in its min–max form with values in the extended reals.

Difficulty

The saddle point theorem itself is short once the extended-real bookkeeping is right. The inner infimum can be −∞-\infty−∞ and the inner supremum +∞+\infty+∞, so "max" and "min" in (3.7) assert attainment as well as equality. A version that compares only finite values, or proves only weak duality sup⁡inf⁡≤inf⁡sup⁡\sup\inf\le\inf\supsupinf≤infsup, is a different theorem.

The milestones carry most of the mathematical weight. "RC 1 implies RC 0" is stated in the book without proof. The obvious approach fails at a direction zzz with zT∇gi(x^)=0z^{\mathsf T}\nabla g_i(\hat x)=0zT∇gi​(x^)=0 for an active iii, where first-order information says nothing about whether x^+αz\hat x+\alpha zx^+αz stays feasible. The refined version, with strictness only for the nonlinear constraints, can no longer push linear constraints into the interior. The chain rule of Proposition 3.2 needs the inclusion ∂(ψ∘y)(x)⊆DT∂ψ(y(x))\partial(\psi\circ y)(x)\subseteq D^{\mathsf T}\partial\psi(y(x))∂(ψ∘y)(x)⊆DT∂ψ(y(x)), which fails for general convex functions with restricted domains, and not only the easy reverse inclusion. "Differentiable iff the subdifferential is a singleton" asks for Fréchet differentiability from a unique subgradient, which is false without convexity and finite dimension.

Formalization scope

Rn\mathbb R^nRn is EuclideanSpace ℝ (Fin n). Constraints are indexed by Fin m. zTvz^{\mathsf T}vzTv is the inner product and ∇\nabla∇ is Mathlib's gradient. Convexity is ConvexOn ℝ Set.univ, continuous differentiability is ContDiff ℝ 1, and every theorem states both standing assumptions for fff and every gig_igi​. Multipliers are Fin m → ℝ with the componentwise order. The dual and primal functions take values in EReal. "Solves (3.1)" is global optimality over B\mathcal BB. The definitions use gradient, which returns 000 at a point of non-differentiability, so RC 0 and the KKT predicate carry their meaning only under the differentiability hypotheses that every theorem includes. A theorem about them without those hypotheses would be a different statement.

The definitions (feasible set, optimality, active set, RC 0, RC 1, KKT conditions, subdifferential, Lagrange function, saddle point, dual and primal functions) are written for reuse by later missions of the series. Chapter 2's chance-constrained programs and Chapter 3's recourse functions use the same convex program and subdifferential. Contributions are welcome on any milestone. The regularity milestones (RC 1 implies RC 0 and its refinement) and the chain rule of Proposition 3.2 are the substantial ones.

Selected references

  • P. Kall and J. Mayer, Stochastic Linear Programming: Models, Theory, and Computation, International Series in Operations Research & Management Science, Kluwer/Springer, 2005. https://doi.org/10.1007/b105472
  • H. W. Kuhn and A. W. Tucker, Nonlinear programming, Proceedings of the Second Berkeley Symposium on Mathematical Statistics and Probability, University of California Press, 1951, pp. 481–492. https://projecteuclid.org/euclid.bsmsp/1200500249
  • M. Slater, Lagrange multipliers revisited, Cowles Commission Discussion Paper Math. 403, 1950. Reprinted in Traces and Emergence of Nonlinear Programming, Birkhäuser, 2014. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-0439-4_14
  • R. T. Rockafellar, Convex Analysis, Princeton University Press, 1970. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400873173
  • D. G. Luenberger, Optimization by Vector Space Methods, Wiley, 1969. ISBN 0-471-55359-X
25 thms6 active usersReviewed
CombinatoricsOperations ResearchProbability·Captain: Shuze Chen

Online Matching with Stochastic Rewards: Optimal Competitive Ratio via Path-Based Formulation: Optimal competitiveness of generalized perturbed greedyResearch Paper

Motivation: allocation when offers can fail

An allocation decision does not always produce a reward. An advertisement may receive no click, or a recommended product may not be purchased. In online matching with stochastic rewards, a failed offer uses the customer's opportunity but leaves the resource available for a later customer. This distinction changes both the algorithm and the benchmark against which it should be compared. Goyal and Udwani study this issue with arbitrary vertex rewards and establish the competitiveness of a randomized greedy rule when success probabilities factor across the two endpoints (supplied artifact, §§1–3).

The relevant offline comparison also faces uncertainty. Knowing tomorrow's arrivals is different from knowing which future offers will succeed. The mission concerns the former advantage: offline algorithms know the graph and probabilities, but learn an outcome only after making its offer. Its central target is the exact constant claimed by Theorem 1, including the assertion that no randomized online policy has a better uniform guarantee.

Setting: resources, arrivals, and observed outcomes

A source instance consists of a finite set of resources, an ordered finite sequence of arrivals, and a bipartite graph of available offers. Resource i has unit capacity and a nonnegative real reward r_i. A present edge (i,t) has success probability p_it in [0,1]. The graph and arrival sequence are fixed independently of the algorithm's random choices. At time t, the algorithm learns the incident edges and their probabilities, then offers at most one remaining neighbor or skips. Success earns r_i and consumes i. Failure earns zero and leaves i available. Either outcome consumes the arrival. Unused edge outcomes remain hidden (§§1–2, pp. 2–3 and 8–9).

Probabilities are decomposable if p_it=a_i b_t for nonnegative endpoint factors on every present edge. The products, rather than the individual factors, must be at most one. Algorithm 1 does not require the factors: it uses the revealed probabilities. It draws independent real uniform seeds y_i in [0,1] once, sets g(x)=exp(x-1), and at each arrival offers an available neighbor maximizing p_it r_i(1-g(y_i)). Seeds persist after failures. Ties use increasing resource index, consistently across the full and resource-deleted executions (Algorithm 1, p. 9).

The clairvoyant benchmark processes arrivals in the original order. The fully offline benchmark may adaptively choose any unprocessed arrival next. Both know the complete fixed instance, may randomize, may discard an arrival, and observe only the outcomes of their own offers. Their values are suprema of expected rewards over these operational policy classes. They are not the values of an expectation relaxation.

Formalization targets

Write ALG(D) for Algorithm 1's expected reward, C(D) and F(D) for the two benchmark values, and c=1-exp(-1). The goal is the full conjunction

∀D with decomposable probabilities,ALG⁡(D)≥c C(D),ALG⁡(D)≥c F(D),\forall D\text{ with decomposable probabilities},\qquad \operatorname{ALG}(D)\ge c\,C(D),\qquad \operatorname{ALG}(D)\ge c\,F(D),∀D with decomposable probabilities,ALG(D)≥cC(D),ALG(D)≥cF(D),

and

∀ε>0  ∀A  ∃D:C(D)>0, F(D)>0,E[A(D)]≤(c+ε)C(D),E[A(D)]≤(c+ε)F(D).\forall\varepsilon>0\;\forall A\;\exists D:\quad C(D)>0,\ F(D)>0,\quad \mathbb E[A(D)]\le(c+\varepsilon)C(D),\quad \mathbb E[A(D)]\le(c+\varepsilon)F(D).∀ε>0∀A∃D:C(D)>0, F(D)>0,E[A(D)]≤(c+ε)C(D),E[A(D)]≤(c+ε)F(D).

Here A ranges over general randomized online algorithm families, before the hard instance D is chosen. The goal retains the exact constant, both benchmarks, and optimality from Theorem 1, p. 5.

The six milestones are Lemmas 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, and 4 in that order. They concern deterministic DP attainment of both benchmarks; both conclusions of path-based weak duality; equality of the actual reward and the constructed dual total; both arrival-side conditional bounds; the resource-side conditional bound; and the averaging implication for the other seeds. Each keeps its source statement and scope. The seven theorem declarations are open proof targets.

Significance: benchmark strength and reusable definitions

The claimed result compares an implementable online rule with an adaptive fully offline competitor for arbitrary finite input sizes, arbitrary nonnegative resource weights, and nonvanishing probabilities. An expectation LP is a different, potentially stronger numerical comparison, and substituting it would change the target (§3.1, pp. 10–11).

The formalization provides separate interfaces for observable histories, randomized policies, independent edge experiments, continuous seed perturbations, finite dynamic programming, and the path-based program. It reuses the published bare probing-policy recursion and a general finite linear-program definition. The classical randomized b-matching lower bound is already proved on Prove2Me; its unit-capacity specialization is reference support for optimality. The bridge to this stochastic model remains mathematical work, rather than an assumption supplied to the goal.

Difficulty: observation and conditioning

Adaptive decisions depend on previous observations. Treating all potential successful offers as independent after selection loses that dependence. Likewise, fully offline's ability to choose the next arrival depends on previous outcomes; a maximum over fixed arrival permutations would not automatically describe the same benchmark.

The supplied artifact also contains two specific problems in its supporting claims. With two unit-reward resources, one arrival, probabilities one half, the other seed one half, and the other edge fixed to failure, Lemma 5's conditional bound fails. Separately, the critical-threshold display omits the competing resource reward; rewards 1 and 10 with unit probabilities contradict Lemma 6 under that literal definition (pp. 9 and 14–16). These printed claims are preserved as targets and documented with numerical evidence. Neither finding is a counterexample to Theorem 1 itself.

Formalization scope

Resources and arrivals use Fin n and Fin m for arbitrary natural sizes, including empty cases. Present edges form a subtype; absent edges are unavailable. Edge expectations are finite product-Bernoulli sums. Seed expectations are integrals over the continuous unit cube. Single-edge conditioning is the explicitly defined two-point resampling operator, including outside configurations of probability zero. Histories include offers, discards, and observed outcomes. Randomized policies use conditional distributions on finite actions, which represent arbitrary private randomness with full observable-history recall.

The path-based program is built on the published finite-LP object. Its constraints enforce realized resource capacity, arrival capacity, bounds on each variable, and invariance under flipping the variable's own edge bit. Equality uses two directed inequalities. Its optimum is a supremum over a nonempty compact feasible set. Benchmark reward sets contain zero and are bounded by the total resource reward. All integral uses in the targets involve bounded Borel functions of finitely many real seeds. No correctness or competitiveness field, assumed certificate, or equality between LP and benchmark trivializes the goal.

For the printed critical threshold, an empty competing set gives 1 and an unsolvable equation gives 0. Where zero coefficients make the root nonunique, the largest root is selected. The printed missing reward factor remains missing. Lemma 5's shorthand lambda_i denotes the arrival variable lambda_t, as its preceding display states. Independent Algorithm 2 and large-inventory results are outside this mission's scope.

Selected references

  • Vineet Goyal and Rajan Udwani, Online Matching with Stochastic Rewards: Optimal Competitive Ratio via Path Based Formulation. Supplied artifact arXiv:1905.12778v6, 10 May 2022, especially pp. 2–17 and 36. Catalog metadata associates the paper with Operations Research (2023) and labels the citation basis published; all page citations here refer to the supplied artifact, not independently verified journal pagination.
  • Prove2Me, AdWordsMSVV.LowerBound.theorem_9: proved classical randomized b-matching upper bound, retained with its original provenance as a reference item.
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