Alphabeta Math
False statementConstruction: Literature-sourcedVerification: AI-adaptedprecheck passaudited 2026-08-11
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  • AI-adapted: a semantically identical restatement of literature-sourced material, modulo indexing, notation, and boundary cases adopted by the library.
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FALSE: every two-colouring of N contains an infinite monochromatic arithmetic progression

Statement

Every two-colouring of N contains an infinite monochromatic arithmetic progression a,a+d,a+2d,… with d>0.

Facts & Assumptions

Given: Natural numbers and their order as in The natural numbers N (von Neumann) and Order on the natural numbers.

[L1]

Every finite colouring of a sufficiently long initial interval has a monochromatic arithmetic progression whose common difference has the same colour (Van der Waerden's theorem, strengthened so the progression and its common difference have one colour).

Refutation

technique · constructive
1.1

Colour 0 red. For n≥1, colour n red when the unique m with 2m≤n<2m+1 is even, and blue when m is odd. Thus consecutive dyadic blocks alternate colours, with every power of two assigned to the block beginning there.

construct
2.1

Fix a∈N and d>0. For every sufficiently large m, let qm be the least q with a+qd≥2m. Minimality gives a+qmd<2m+d<2m+1, so the progression meets the mth dyadic block. It therefore meets infinitely many blocks of each parity and contains both colours.

step 1.1algebra
3.1

No infinite arithmetic progression is monochromatic in this colouring. This does not contradict [L1], which guarantees arbitrarily long finite progressions only. The displayed universal statement is false.

step 2.1L1discharge-construct∎

Depends on

Used by

Nothing in the library uses this result yet.

Dependency tree · two levels

11 results within two dependency steps of this one, each drawn at its shortest distance from it. An arrow runs from a result to what uses it, so the chart reads left to right and ends at this result, which carries a heavier outline. Every node is a link to that result. Click elsewhere on the chart to enlarge it.

Sources