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⇱ Erdős Problems


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Let $C>0$ be a constant. Are there infinitely many integers $a,b,n$ with $a+b> n+C\log n$ such that the denominator of\[\frac{n!}{a!b!}\]contains only primes $\ll_C 1$?
Erd\H{o}s \cite{Er68c} proved that if $a!b!\mid n!$ then $a+b\leq n+O(\log n)$. The proof is easy, and can be done with powers of $2$ alone: Legendre's formula implies that if $2^k$ is the highest power of $2$ dividing $n!$ then $k=n+O(\log n)$, and hence if $a!b!\mid n!$ then $a+b\leq n+O(\log n)$.

This problem is asking if $a!b!\mid n!$ 'ignoring what happens on small primes' still implies $a+b\leq n+O(\log n)$.

See also [728], and [401] for a later problem in a similar spirit.

This has been proved in the affirmative by Barreto and Leeham, using ChatGPT and Aristotle, with a modification of the argument used for [728].

References

[Er68c] P. Erd\H{o}s, Aufgabe 557. Elemente Math. (1968), 111-113.
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