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1011 problems

Open problems

Each problem states how progress is verified and what counts as a contribution. Besides the problems curated here, the catalogue includes open conjectures from Formal Conjectures (with Lean statements), optimization constants and the AlphaEvolve problems. Know one that belongs here? Propose a problem.

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A Hard Number theory · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Ben Green's Open Problem 45

Can we pick residue classes a_p pmodp, one for each prime p ≤ N, such that every integer ≤ N lies in at least 10 of them? Erdős remarks that he does not know how to answer it with 10 replaced by 2; this is Erdos689.erdos_689.

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A Hard Number theory · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Ben Green's Open Problem 46

We conjecture that the best-known lower bound can be improved.

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A Hard Combinatorics · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Ben Green's Open Problem 5

Which finite groups have the smallest biggest product-free sets? We formalise this as: determine the supremum of exponents α such that every nontrivial finite group of order n contains a product-free set of size ≥ c n^α for some absolute constant c > 0.

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A Hard Combinatorics · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Ben Green's Open Problem 50

Let A ⊂ 𝔽_2^n be a set of density α > 0. Does 10A contain a coset of some subspace of dimension at least n - O(log(1/α))?

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A Hard Combinatorics · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Ben Green's Open Problem 58

Suppose A, B ⊆ 1, …, N both have size at least N^0.49. Must the sumset A + B contain a composite number?

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A Hard Number theory · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Ben Green's Open Problem 60

Is there an absolute constant c > 0 such that, whenever A ⊆ ℕ is a set of squares with |A| ≥ 2, the sumset A + A satisfies |A + A| ≥ |A|^1 + c?

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A Hard Number theory · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Ben Green's Open Problem 61

Suppose that A + A contains the first n squares. Is |A| ≥ n^1 - o(1)? It is known that necessarily |A| ≥ n^2/3 - o(1), whilst in the other direction there do exist such A with |A| ≪_C n / log^C n for any C.

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A Hard Number theory · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Ben Green's Open Problem 62

Let p be a large prime, and let A be the set of all primes less than p. Is every x ∈ 1, …, p-1 congruent to some product a_1 a_2 where a_1, a_2 ∈ A?

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A Hard Number theory · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Ben Green's Open Problem 66

Is there always a sum of two squares between X - 1/10X^1/4 and X? We formalize this as an eventual statement for sufficiently large real X.

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A Hard Combinatorics · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Ben Green's Open Problem 72

The no-k-in-line problem: For which k > 2 does every N × N grid with N ≥ k contain a set of (k - 1) N points with no k on a line, so that AllowedSetSize k N is the pigeonhole bound (k - 1) N?

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A Hard Combinatorics · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Ben Green's Open Problem 77

Given n points in the unit disc, must there be a triangle of area at most n^-2+o(1) determined by them?

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A Hard Number theory · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Ben Green's Open Problem 82

Let A ⊂ ℤ be a set of size n. For how many θ ∈ ℝ/ℤ must we have Σ_a ∈ A cos(2π aθ) = 0? The answer is the function minZeros.

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A Hard Analysis · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Ben Green's Open Problem 94

Let A ⊂ R be a set of positive measure. Does A contain an affine copy of 1, 1/2, 1/4, . . . ?

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A Hard Number theory · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Betrothed numbers

Same parity betrothed numbers conjecture. Do there exist betrothed numbers (m, n) where both have the same parity (both even or both odd)? All known betrothed pairs consist of one even and one odd number. The requirement m ≠ n is part of the question: IsBetrothed n n says σ(n) = 2n + 1, i.e.

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A Hard Analysis · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Bloch and Landau constants

Ahlfors and Grunsky also conjectured in [AG37] that this upper bound is the precise value of the Bloch constant.

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A Hard Graph theory · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Bondy's conjecture on longest cycles in highly connected graphs

Conjecture 1 (Bondy, 1980). Let k ≥ 1 and let G be a k-connected graph on n vertices. If δ(G) ≥ n + k(k-1)/k+1, then for every longest cycle C of G, every path in G - V(C) has at most k-1 vertices.

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A Hard Geometry · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Borsuk's conjecture

Borsuk's conjecture, open range: every bounded subset of ℝ^n with at least two points can be partitioned into n + 1 sets of strictly smaller diameter, for 4 ≤ n ≤ 62. The conjecture is known to be true for n ≤ 3 and false for n ≥ 63.

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A Hard Analysis · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Brennan's Conjecture

Brennan's conjecture, part 1: B(-2) = 1.

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A Hard Number theory · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Brocard's Conjecture

Brocard's Conjecture For every n ≥ 2, between the squares of the n-th and (n+1)-th primes, there are at least four prime numbers.

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A Hard Number theory · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Büchi's problem

Büchi's problem There exists a positive integer M such that, for all integers x and a, if (x+n)^2 + a is a square for M consecutive values of n, then a = 0.

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A Hard Number theory · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Bugeaud Collection of Conjectures and Open Questions: p-adic Littlewood Conjecture

Problem 10.8 (p-adic Littlewood conjecture). For every real number ξ and every prime number p, inf_q ≥ 1 q · lVert q ξ rVert · |q|_p = 0, where lVert · rVert denotes the distance to the nearest integer and |·|_p denotes the p-adic absolute value. Posed by de Mathan and Teulié [dMT04].

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A Hard Number theory · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Bunyakovsky conjecture

Bunyakovsky conjecture If a polynomial f over integers satisfies both Schinzel and Bunyakovsky conditions, there exist infinitely many natural numbers m such that f(m) is prime.

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A Hard Logic & formalisation · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Busy Beaver

Determine the value of the Busy Beaver function at n = 6.

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A Hard Number theory · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Can a prime p satisfy 2^p-1 ≡ 1 pmodp^2 and 3^p-1 ≡ 1 pmodp^2?

Can a prime p satisfy 2^p-1 ≡ 1 pmodp^2 and 3^p-1 ≡ 1 pmodp^2 simultaneously? That is, does there exist a prime p that is both a Wieferich prime and a Mirimanoff prime? Wikipedia's list of unsolved problems poses this question, citing J. B. Dobson, On Lerch's formula for the Fermat quotient.

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A Hard Number theory · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Carmichael's totient function conjecture

Carmichael's totient function conjecture: For every positive natural number n, there exists a natural number m with m ≠ n, such that φ(n) = φ(m).

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A Hard Algebra · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Casas-Alvero Conjecture

The Casas-Alvero conjecture states that in characteristic zero, if a monic polynomial P has the Casas-Alvero property, then P = (X - α)ᵈ for some α.

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A Hard Number theory · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Catalan-Mersenne numbers

Catalan-Mersenne conjecture: All terms of the Catalan-Mersenne sequence are prime.

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A Hard Number theory · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Catalan's conjecture and related Diophantine equations

For positive integers a, b, and c, there are only finitely many positive solutions (x, y, m, n) to the equation ax^n - by^m = c where (m, n) ≠ (2, 2) and x, y > 1.

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A Hard Number theory · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Central trinomial coefficients

An integer n > 3 is prime if and only if a(n) ≡ 1 pmodn^2. We have verified this for n up to 8 · 10^5, and proved that a(p) ≡ 1 pmodp^2 for any prime p > 3 (cf. A277640). - Zhi-Wei Sun, Nov 30 2016

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A Hard Combinatorics · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Chvátal's Conjecture

If F is a decreasing family of sets of some finite type α, then there is some element x of α such that the family consisting of all members of F containing x is an intersecting subfamily of F with maximal cardinality.

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A Hard Number theory · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Class number problem for real quadratic fields

There are infinitely many real quadratic fields ℚ(√d) with class number one, where d > 1 is a squarefree integer.

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A Hard Number theory · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Coefficients of Π_k>0 (1 - x^k/k!)

The coefficients c(n) of A(x)^2 = (Σ_n ≥ 0 a(n) x^n)^2 differ in sign from c(n-1) if and only if n is a triangular number. - _Peter Bala_, Mar 17 2022

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A Hard Number theory · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Collatz step differences

Conjecture 1: More than half of the terms are 0. - _Ya-Ping Lu_, May 04 2024

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A Hard Number theory · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Concatenation of the next n numbers

"The second term is a prime. When is the next prime, if there is another? - _N. J. A. Sloane_, Dec 16 2016"

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A Hard Number theory · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Congruent Number

Tunnell's theorem (sufficient condition assuming BSD) for odd squarefree congruent numbers.

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A Hard Algebra · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Conjecture 1.35(c)

Do there exist simple pro-orderable groups?

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A Hard Algebra · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Conjecture 1.40

Is a group a nilgroup if it is the product of two normal nilsubgroups? Since H and K are normal, the product HK coincides with the join H sqcup K, so "G is the product of H and K" is stated as H sqcup K = G.

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A Hard Algebra · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Conjecture 1.74 (Minimal topological groups)

Describe all minimal topological groups, that is, all non-discrete Hausdorff topological groups whose proper closed subgroups are all discrete.

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A Hard Algebra · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Conjecture 19.25

Let G and H be finite groups of the same order with Σ_g ∈ G φ(|g|) = Σ_h ∈ H φ(|h|), where φ is the Euler totient function. Suppose that G is simple. Is H necessarily simple?

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A Hard Algebra · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Conjecture 20.76

Let G be a finite p-group and assume that all abelian normal subgroups of G have order at most p^k. Is it true that every abelian subgroup of G has order at most p^2k?

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A Hard Algebra · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Conjecture 8.8

Does there exist a non-cyclic finitely presented group G which contains an element a such that each element of G is conjugate to some power of a? Here a power of a means a^n for some n ∈ ℤ.

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A Hard Geometry · Formal Conjectures (Lean)

Conjecture about cardinality of Lindelöf spaces

Is there a Lindelöf Tychonoff space with singletons as Gδ sets with cardinality greater than the continuum? Note: the cited paper uses a blanket convention that all spaces are Tychonoff.

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