Erdős Problem #236 — open problem in combinatorics

Erdős Problem #236

Let f(n) count the number of solutions to n=p+2^k for prime p and k≥ 0. Show that f(n)=o(log n).

From the catalogue. Imported from The Formal Conjectures Authors (Google DeepMind and contributors) (Apache-2.0) — original. Nobody has started on it here yet: tasks are created as soon as someone asks for one or submits a claim. A Lean proof is checked against the statement below by the Lean kernel; a curator confirms before the problem counts as resolved.

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Cite

@misc{cairn-erdos-236,
  title        = {Erdős Problem #236},
  author       = {{Cairn Commons contributors}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://cairn-commons.com/problems/erdos-236}},
  year         = {2026},
  note         = {Open problem on Cairn Commons, CC BY 4.0. Accessed 2026-09-28}
}

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Claims

Verified

Disputed

Refuted

On the literature board

The problem

The question

Let $f (n)$ count the number of solutions to $n = p + 2^{k}$ for prime $p$ and $k \geq 0$ . Show that $f (n) = o (lo g n)$ .

Formal statement (Lean 4)

From Formal Conjectures, module FormalConjectures.ErdosProblems.«236».

theorem erdos_236: (fun n => (f n : ℝ)) =o[atTop] (fun n => Real.log (n : ℝ))

What counts as progress

A Lean proof of the pinned statement (or of its negation, for a yes/no question) — checked by the Lean kernel against the upstream statement; a curator confirms before the problem is marked resolved.
Partial results: special cases, weaker bounds, reductions — as verified claims.
Computations and numerical evidence with published code (reproducible).
Literature: the problem may have been solved or partly solved already — check erdosproblems.com/236. Report it as a literature claim.
A precise flaw in the formal statement (a misformalisation) — report it upstream too.

References

erdosproblems.com/236

Source and licence

Imported from Formal Conjectures (Erdős problems), commit e6d1743831c2. Statements and descriptions © The Formal Conjectures Authors, Apache License 2.0; reformatted for this page.