On Sequences Containing at Most 4 Pairwise Coprime Integers

Abstract

Let $f(n,k)$ be the largest number of positive integers not exceeding $n$ from which one cannot select $k+1$ pairwise coprime integers, and let $E(n,k)$ be the set of positive integers which do not exceed $n$ and can be divided by at least one of $p_1,p_2,...,p_k$, where $p_i$ is the $i$-th prime. In 1962, P. Erd\H os conjectured that $f(n,k)=|E(n,k)|$ for all $n\ge p_k$. In 1973, S. L. G. Choi proved that the conjecture is true for $k=3$. In 1994, Ahlswede and Kachatrian disproved the conjecture for $k=212$. In this paper we prove that, for $n\ge 49$, if A(n,4) is a set of positive integers not exceeding $n$ from which one cannot select 5 pairwise coprime integers and $|A(n,4)|\ge |E(n,4)|$, then $A(n,4)=E(n,4)$. In particular, the conjecture is true for k=4. Several open problems and conjectures are posed for further research.

17 pages