Problem Statement
Let $x_1,x_2,\ldots\in [0,1]$ be an infinite sequence. Is it true that\[\inf_n \liminf_{m\to \infty} n \lvert x_{m+n}-x_m\rvert\leq 5^{-1/2}\approx 0.447?\]
Categories:
Number Theory
Progress
A conjecture of Newman. This was proved by Chung and Graham [ChGr84], who in fact prove that\[\inf_n \liminf_{m\to \infty} n \lvert x_{m+n}-x_m\rvert\leq \frac{1}{c}\approx 0.3944\]where\[c=1+\sum_{k\geq 1}\frac{1}{F_{2k}}=2.535\cdots\]and $F_m$ is the $m$th Fibonacci number. They also prove that this constant is best possible (van Doorn discusses their construction in the comments).Source: erdosproblems.com/480 | Last verified: January 15, 2026