Resolution of Erd\H{o}s Problem #728: a writeup of Aristotle's Lean proof

TL;DR

This paper presents a formal proof, generated by AI, resolving Erdős Problem #728 by demonstrating a logarithmic-gap phenomenon in factorial divisibility using prime-by-prime analysis and combinatorial arguments.

Contribution

It is the first Erdős problem fully resolved autonomously by an AI system, combining GPT-5.2 Pro and Aristotle to produce a formal proof in Lean.

Findings

Proved a logarithmic-gap phenomenon in factorial divisibility.

Reduced the problem to binomial divisibility and prime analysis.

Developed a counting argument for prime-based carry phenomena.

Abstract

We provide a writeup of a resolution of Erd\H{o}s Problem #728; this is the first Erd\H{o}s problem (a problem proposed by Paul Erd\H{o}s which has been collected in the Erd\H{o}s Problems website) regarded as fully resolved autonomously by an AI system. The system in question is a combination of GPT-5.2 Pro by OpenAI and Aristotle by Harmonic, operated by Kevin Barreto. The final result of the system is a formal proof written in Lean, which we translate to informal mathematics in the present writeup for wider accessibility. The proved result is as follows. We show a logarithmic-gap phenomenon regarding factorial divisibility: For any constants $0<C_1<C_2$ and $0 < \varepsilon < 1/2$ there exist infinitely many triples $(a,b,n)\in\mathbb N^3$ with $\varepsilon n \le a,b \le (1-\varepsilon)n$ such that \[ a!\,b!\mid n!\,(a+b-n)!\qquad\text{and}\qquad C_1\log n < a+b-n < C_2\log n. \] The argument reduces this to a binomial divisibility $\binom{m+k}{k}\mid\binom{2m}{m}$ and studies it prime-by-prime. By Kummer's theorem, $\nu_p\binom{2m}{m}$ translates into a carry count for doubling $m$ in base $p$. We then employ a counting argument to find, in each scale $[M,2M]$, an integer $m$ whose base-$p$ expansions simultaneously force many carries when doubling $m$, for every prime $p\le 2k$, while avoiding the rare event that one of $m+1,\dots,m+k$ is divisible by an unusually high power of $p$. These "carry-rich but spike-free" choices of $m$ force the needed $p$-adic inequalities and the divisibility. The overall strategy is similar to results regarding divisors of $\binom{2n}{n}$ studied earlier by Erd\H{o}s and by Pomerance.