The prolific
mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems.
Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...
Paul Erdős and his various collaborators made many famous mathematical
conjecture
In mathematics, a conjecture is a conclusion or a proposition that is proffered on a tentative basis without proof. Some conjectures, such as the Riemann hypothesis (still a conjecture) or Fermat's Last Theorem (a conjecture until proven in 1 ...
s, over a wide field of subjects, and in many cases Erdős offered monetary rewards for solving them.
Unsolved
* The
Erdős–Gyárfás conjecture
In graph theory, the unproven Erdős–Gyárfás conjecture, made in 1995 by the prolific mathematician Paul Erdős and his collaborator András Gyárfás, states that every graph with minimum degree 3 contains a simple cycle whose length is a po ...
on cycles with lengths equal to a power of two in graphs with minimum degree 3.
* The
Erdős–Hajnal conjecture that in a family of graphs defined by an excluded induced subgraph, every graph has either a large clique or a large independent set.
* The
Erdős–Mollin–Walsh conjecture on consecutive triples of powerful numbers.
* The Erdős–Selfridge conjecture that a
covering system In mathematics, a covering system (also called a complete residue system) is a collection
:\
of finitely many residue classes a_i(\mathrm\ ) = \
whose union contains every integer.
Examples and definitions
The notion of covering system was ...
with distinct moduli contains at least one even modulus.
* The
Erdős–Straus conjecture
The Erdős–Straus conjecture is an unproven statement in number theory. The conjecture is that, for every integer n that is 2 or more, there exist positive integers x, y, and z for which \frac=\frac+\frac+\frac.
In other words, the number 4/n ...
on the Diophantine equation 4/''n'' = 1/''x'' + 1/''y'' + 1/''z''.
* The
Erdős conjecture on arithmetic progressions
Erdős' conjecture on arithmetic progressions, often referred to as the Erdős–Turán conjecture, is a conjecture in arithmetic combinatorics (not to be confused with the Erdős–Turán conjecture on additive bases). It states that if the sum ...
in sequences with divergent sums of reciprocals.
* The
Erdős–Szekeres conjecture on the number of points needed to ensure that a point set contains a large convex polygon.
* The
Erdős–Turán conjecture on additive bases
The Erdős–Turán conjecture is an old unsolved problem in additive number theory (not to be confused with Erdős conjecture on arithmetic progressions) posed by Paul Erdős and Pál Turán in 1941.
The question concerns subsets of the natural ...
of natural numbers.
* A conjecture on
quickly growing integer sequences with rational reciprocal series.
* A conjecture with Norman Oler on
circle packing in an equilateral triangle with a number of circles one less than a
triangular number
A triangular number or triangle number counts objects arranged in an equilateral triangle. Triangular numbers are a type of figurate number, other examples being square numbers and cube numbers. The th triangular number is the number of dots i ...
.
* The
minimum overlap problem to estimate the limit of ''M''(''n'').
* A conjecture that the ternary expansion of
contains at least one digit 2 for every
.
Solved
* The
Erdős–Faber–Lovász conjecture on coloring unions of cliques, proved (for all large n) by Dong Yeap Kang, Tom Kelly,
Daniela Kühn
Daniela Kühn (born 1973) is a German mathematician and the Mason Professor in Mathematics at the University of Birmingham in Birmingham, England. , Abhishek Methuku, and
Deryk Osthus.
* The
Erdős sumset conjecture on sets, proven by Joel Moreira, Florian Karl Richter, Donald Robertson in 2018. The proof has appeared in "
Annals of Mathematics
The ''Annals of Mathematics'' is a mathematical journal published every two months by Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study.
History
The journal was established as ''The Analyst'' in 1874 and with Joel E. Hendricks as t ...
" in March 2019.
* The
Burr–Erdős conjecture In mathematics, the Burr–Erdős conjecture was a problem concerning the Ramsey number of sparse graphs. The conjecture is named after Stefan Burr and Paul Erdős, and is one of many conjectures named after Erdős; it states that the Ramsey numbe ...
on Ramsey numbers of graphs, proved by Choongbum Lee in 2015.
* A conjecture on
equitable coloring In graph theory, an area of mathematics, an equitable coloring is an assignment of colors to the vertices of an undirected graph, in such a way that
*No two adjacent vertices have the same color, and
*The numbers of vertices in any two color clas ...
s proven in 1970 by
András Hajnal
András Hajnal (May 13, 1931 – July 30, 2016) was a professor of mathematics at Rutgers University and a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences known for his work in set theory and combinatorics.
Biography
Hajnal was born on 13 May 1931, and
Endre Szemerédi
Endre Szemerédi (; born August 21, 1940) is a Hungarian-American mathematician and computer scientist, working in the field of combinatorics and theoretical computer science. He has been the State of New Jersey Professor of computer science a ...
and now known as the
Hajnal–Szemerédi theorem In graph theory, an area of mathematics, an equitable coloring is an assignment of colors to the vertices of an undirected graph, in such a way that
*No two adjacent vertices have the same color, and
*The numbers of vertices in any two color cla ...
.
* A conjecture that would have strengthened the
Furstenberg–Sárközy theorem
In mathematics, a square-difference-free set is a set of natural numbers, no two of which differ by a square number. Hillel Furstenberg and András Sárközy proved in the late 1970s the Furstenberg–Sárközy theorem of additive number the ...
to state that the number of elements in a square-difference-free set of positive integers could only exceed the square root of its largest value by a polylogarithmic factor, disproved by
András Sárközy
András Sárközy (born in Budapest) is a Hungarian mathematician, working in analytic and combinatorial number theory, although his first works were in the fields of geometry and classical analysis. He has the largest number of papers co-a ...
in 1978.
* The
Erdős–Lovász conjecture on weak/strong delta-systems, proved by
Michel Deza
Michel Marie Deza (27 April 1939. – 23 November 2016) was a Soviet and French mathematician, specializing in combinatorics, discrete geometry and graph theory. He was the retired director of research at the French National Centre for Scient ...
in 1974.
* The
Erdős–Heilbronn conjecture
In additive number theory and combinatorics, a restricted sumset has the form
:S=\,
where A_1,\ldots,A_n are finite nonempty subsets of a field ''F'' and P(x_1,\ldots,x_n) is a polynomial over ''F''.
If P is a constant non-zero function, for ...
in combinatorial number theory on the number of sums of two sets of residues modulo a prime, proved by Dias da Silva and Hamidoune in 1994.
* The
Erdős–Graham conjecture in combinatorial number theory on monochromatic Egyptian fraction representations of unity, proved by
Ernie Croot in 2000.
* The
Erdős–Stewart conjecture on the
Diophantine equation
In mathematics, a Diophantine equation is an equation, typically a polynomial equation in two or more unknowns with integer coefficients, such that the only solutions of interest are the integer ones. A linear Diophantine equation equates to ...
''n''! + 1 = ''p''
''k''''a'' ''p''
''k''+1''b'', solved by
Florian Luca
Florian Luca (born 16 March 1969, in Galați) is a Romanian mathematician who specializes in number theory with emphasis on Diophantine equations, linear recurrences and the distribution of values of arithmetic functions. He has made notable contr ...
in 2001.
* The
Cameron–Erdős conjecture In combinatorics, the Cameron–Erdős conjecture (now a theorem) is the statement that the number of sum-free sets contained in = \ is O\big(\big).
The sum of two odd numbers is even, so a set of odd numbers is always sum-free. There are \lcei ...
on sum-free sets of integers, proved by
Ben Green and Alexander Sapozhenko in 2003–2004.
* The
Erdős–Menger conjecture on disjoint paths in infinite graphs, proved by
Ron Aharoni
Ron Aharoni ( he, רון אהרוני ) (born 1952) is an Israeli mathematician, working in finite and infinite combinatorics. Aharoni is a professor at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, where he received his Ph.D. in mathematics in ...
and Eli Berger in 2009.
* The
Erdős distinct distances problem In discrete geometry, the Erdős distinct distances problem states that every set of points in the plane has a nearly-linear number of distinct distances. It was posed by Paul Erdős in 1946 and almost proven by Larry Guth and Nets Katz in 2015.
...
. The correct exponent was proved in 2010 by
Larry Guth
Lawrence David Guth (born 1977) is a professor of mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Education and career
Guth graduated from Yale in 2000, with BS in mathematics.
In 2005, he got his PhD in mathematics from the Massach ...
and
Nets Katz Nets Hawk Katz is the IBM Professor of Mathematics at the California Institute of Technology. He was a professor of Mathematics at Indiana University Bloomington
Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, or simply ...
, but the correct power of log ''n'' is still undetermined.
* The
Erdős–Rankin conjecture on prime gaps, proved by
Ford
Ford commonly refers to:
* Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford
* Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river
Ford may also refer to:
Ford Motor Company
* Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
* Ford F ...
,
Green
Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...
,
Konyagin, and
Tao
''Tao'' or ''Dao'' is the natural order of the universe, whose character one's intuition must discern to realize the potential for individual wisdom, as conceived in the context of East Asian philosophy, East Asian religions, or any other phil ...
in 2014.
* The
Erdős discrepancy problem
In mathematics, a sign sequence, or ±1–sequence or bipolar sequence, is a sequence of numbers, each of which is either 1 or −1. One example is the sequence (1, −1, 1, −1, ...).
Such sequences are commonly studied in discrepancy theo ...
on partial sums of ±1-sequences.
Terence Tao
Terence Chi-Shen Tao (; born 17 July 1975) is an Australian-American mathematician. He is a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he holds the James and Carol Collins chair. His research includes ...
announced a solution in September 2015; it was published in 2016.
* The
Erdős squarefree conjecture
In mathematics, a square-free integer (or squarefree integer) is an integer which is divisible by no square number other than 1. That is, its prime factorization has exactly one factor for each prime that appears in it. For example, is square-f ...
that central binomial coefficients C(2''n'', ''n'') are never squarefree for ''n'' > 4 was proved in 1996.
* The Erdős primitive set conjecture that the sum
for any primitive set A (a set where no member of the set divides another member) attains its maximum at the set of primes numbers, proved by Jared Duker Lichtman in 2022.
* The Erdős-Sauer problem about maximum number of edges an n-vertex graph can have without containing a k-
regular
The term regular can mean normal or in accordance with rules. It may refer to:
People
* Moses Regular (born 1971), America football player
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* "Regular" (Badfinger song)
* Regular tunings of stringed instrum ...
subgraph, solved by Oliver Janzer and
Benny Sudakov
See also
*
List of things named after Paul Erdős
The following are named after Paul Erdős:
* Paul Erdős Award of the World Federation of National Mathematics Competitions
* Erdős Prize
* Erdős Lectures
* Erdős number
* Erdős cardinal
* Erdős–Nicolas number
* Erdős conjecture — a li ...
References
External links
Fan Chung, "Open problems of Paul Erdős in graph theory"
Fan Chung, living version of "Open problems of Paul Erdős in graph theory"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Conjectures by Paul Erdos
Erdos
Paul Erdős
Conjectures,Erdos