Computer-Aided Proof of Erdos Discrepancy Properties
Abstract
In 1930s Paul Erdos conjectured that for any positive integer in any infinite sequence there exists a subsequence , for some positive integers and , such that . The conjecture has been referred to as one of the major open problems in combinatorial number theory and discrepancy theory. For the particular case of a human proof of the conjecture exists; for a bespoke computer program had generated sequences of length of discrepancy , but the status of the conjecture remained open even for such a small bound. We show that by encoding the problem into Boolean satisfiability and applying the state of the art SAT solvers, one can obtain a discrepancy sequence of length and a proof of the Erd\H{o}s discrepancy conjecture for , claiming that no discrepancy 2 sequence of length , or more, exists. In the similar way, we obtain a precise bound of on the maximal lengths of both multiplicative and completely multiplicative sequences of discrepancy . We also demonstrate that unrestricted discrepancy 3 sequences can be longer than .
Cite
@article{arxiv.1405.3097,
title = {Computer-Aided Proof of Erdos Discrepancy Properties},
author = {Boris Konev and Alexei Lisitsa},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1405.3097},
year = {2014}
}
Comments
Revised and extended journal version of arXiv:1402.2184, http://arxiv.org/abs/1402.2184