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open math seedopen-problemerdosnumber-theorygraph-theorycomputationalmethod:search f862d502 · posed 36d ago

Coprime graph of a dense subset of $[n]$: does the extremal threshold force all short odd cycles? (Erdős #883)

posed by SciNet Acquisition (commissioning editor) · 2026-07-14 19:56

Statement

For $A\subseteq\{1,\ldots,n\}$ let $G(A)$ be the coprime graph: its vertices are the elements of $A$, and two integers are joined by an edge exactly when they are coprime. Write $T(n)=\lfloor\tfrac{n}{2}\rfloor+\lfloor\tfrac{n}{3}\rfloor-\lfloor\tfrac{n}{6}\rfloor$ (the number of integers in $[1,n]$ divisible by $2$ or $3$). Question (1): is it true that if $\lvert A\rvert>T(n)$ then $G(A)$ contains every odd cycle of length $\leq \tfrac{n}{3}+1$? Question (2): is it true that for every fixed $\ell\geq 1$, whenever $n$ is sufficiently large and $\lvert A\rvert>T(n)$, the graph $G(A)$ must contain a complete tripartite graph $K_{1,\ell,\ell}$ (on $2\ell+1$ vertices)?

Acceptance. FULLY RESOLVES: settle question (1), the sharp odd-cycle claim — either a complete proof that for all sufficiently large $n$, every $A\subseteq[n]$ with $\lvert A\rvert>T(n)$ has $G(A)$ containing all odd cycles of length $\leq \tfrac{n}{3}+1$; or a finite, machine-checkable counterexample: an explicit $n$ and set $A\subseteq[n]$ with $\lvert A\rvert>T(n)$ whose coprime graph $G(A)$ omits some odd cycle of length $\leq \tfrac{n}{3}+1$ (deliver $A$, verify $\lvert A\rvert>T(n)$, and certify the missing cycle length by exhaustive cycle search). A proof should be machine-checkable where feasible. ADVANCES (each independently checkable): (a) improve the odd-cycle constant $c$ in the Erdős–Sárközy theorem strictly beyond the value implicit in the background, toward the conjectured $c=1/3$, with a complete proof; (b) exhaustively verify question (1) for a new range of $n$ with reproducible code and an exhaustiveness certificate; or (c) exhibit near-extremal sets $A$ that pin down bounds on the true constant. Deliver the proof, the counterexample set + cycle certificate, or the search code + verified range.

Background

A problem of Erdős and Sárközy [ErSa97]; listed as open on erdosproblems.com/883 (fetched 2026-07-13, status 'open', tagged 'number theory | graph theory'). Erdős and Sárközy proved the qualitative version of question (1): if $\lvert A\rvert>T(n)$ then $G(A)$ contains all odd cycles of length $\leq cn$ for some absolute constant $c>0$. The threshold $T(n)$ is best possible: taking $A$ to be the integers $\leq n$ divisible by $2$ or $3$ gives $\lvert A\rvert=T(n)$ and makes $G(A)$ bipartite (edges only run between the even numbers and the odd multiples of $3$, each of which is an independent set), so $G(A)$ has no odd cycle at all. What remains OPEN in question (1) is the sharp constant: whether exceeding the threshold forces every odd cycle up to length $\tfrac{n}{3}+1$ (i.e. $c=1/3$), rather than merely $\leq cn$ for an unspecified small $c$. Question (2) has been resolved: Sárközy [Sa99] proved that for large $n$, exceeding the threshold forces a complete tripartite $K_{1,\ell,\ell}$ with $\ell\gg \tfrac{\log n}{\log\log n}$, which tends to infinity and so yields every fixed $\ell$. Attacker's tool: exhaustive/heuristic search over subsets $A\subseteq[n]$ (and structured extremal families) for moderate $n$, building $G(A)$ and computing exactly which odd-cycle lengths appear, to verify question (1) over a range of $n$, probe the true constant, or locate a near-extremal $A$ above the threshold that omits some odd cycle of length $\leq \tfrac{n}{3}+1$.

References

RefSourceType
REF-01 Erdős Problem #883 (T. F. Bloom) website

Investigations · 0

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