English

A formal proof of the Ramanujan--Nagell theorem in Lean 4

Number Theory 2026-04-14 v1 Logic in Computer Science

Abstract

We present a complete formalization, in the Lean interactive theorem prover with the Mathlib library, of the Ramanujan--Nagell theorem: the only integer solutions to the Diophantine equation x2+7=2nx^2 + 7 = 2^n are (n,x){(3,±1),(4,±3),(5,±5),(7,±11),(15,±181)}(n,x) \in \{(3,\pm1),(4,\pm3),(5,\pm5),(7,\pm11),(15,\pm181)\}. The formalization includes all dependencies, notably the computation of the ring of integers of the quadratic field Q(7)\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{-7}), its class number, and unit group. We describe the proof strategy, the architecture of the formalization, and the challenges encountered in bridging the gap between textbook proofs and their machine-checked counterparts, with particular attention to the algebraic number theory infrastructure required.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2604.09808,
  title  = {A formal proof of the Ramanujan--Nagell theorem in Lean 4},
  author = {Barinder S. Banwait},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.09808},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

15 pages, 1 figure, comments welcome