Advancing Mathematics Research with AI-Driven Formal Proof Search

George Tsoukalas, Anton Kovsharov, Sergey Shirobokov, Anja Surina, Moritz Firsching, Gergely Bérczi, Francisco J. R. Ruiz, Arun Suggala, Adam Zsolt Wagner, Eric Wieser, Lei Yu, Aja Huang, Miklós Z. Horváth, Andrew Ferraiuolo, Henryk Michalewski, Edward Lockhart, Codrut Grosu, Thomas Hubert, Matej Balog, Pushmeet Kohli, Swarat Chaudhuri

For every n-element Sidon set A of natural numbers, AlphaProof Nexus proves 16 I(A+A)+100n+16≥n², where I counts sums whose neighboring integers are both absent from A+A. Thus the minimum isolated-sum count grows at least quadratically, answering the finite-set form of Erdős Problem 152.

Sources for this record

What was already known

Erdős asked whether the minimum isolated-sum count for finite Sidon sets must diverge. The corresponding infinite-set question is a separate unformalized variant.

AI involvement AI-autonomous

DeepMind reports that AlphaProof Nexus autonomously solved the supplied formal problem. The team formalized the target, reviewed statement fidelity and wrote a human explanation.

The research paper explicitly reports autonomous agent solution from a supplied formal theorem; humans chose and reviewed the target afterward.

Importance Notable

Gives a quadratic lower bound for a named finite Sidon-set question.

Limitations

The statement is about finite subsets of natural numbers and does not settle the infinite-set variant. The released Lean proof is reported as complete; the team checked statement fidelity, which is separate from checking every proof step by hand.

Technical verification Formal (Lean 4)

The primary paper and cited proof repository report a sorry-free Lean proof of the quadratic inequality and divergence target. Team experts additionally checked fidelity of the solved formal statement to the finite original question; that is not counted as human proof checking.

Formal checking

Compilation of the agent's formal proof with no sorry in the submitted target

Checker
Lean 4 compiler in the AlphaProof Nexus validation pipeline
Scope
The finite Sidon-set quadratic isolated-sum lower bound and consequent divergence of f(n)
Basis
Reported by the linked checker
Evidence source

Checking a formal statement does not establish that it matches the original problem.

Human understanding Full

The team's Appendix B.4 explains the combinatorial counting of isolated sums and the quadratic inequality; named team experts reviewed statement fidelity.

Correction and publication history