The amended Loneliness Spectrum Conjecture

Let v1,,vnv_1,\ldots,v_n be positive integers, and let

ML(v1,,vn)=maxtRmin1intvi,\operatorname{ML}(v_1,\ldots,v_n)=\max_{t\in\mathbb{R}}\min_{1\leq i\leq n}\lVert tv_i\rVert,

where x\lVert x\rVert denotes the absolute distance from xx to the nearest integer. The amended Loneliness Spectrum Conjecture. One has either

s,kN,kn,ML(v1,,vn)=sns+k,\exists s,k\in\mathbb{N},\quad k\leq n,\quad \operatorname{ML}(v_1,\ldots,v_n)=\frac{s}{ns+k},

or

ML(v1,,vn)1n.\operatorname{ML}(v_1,\ldots,v_n)\geq\frac{1}{n}.

This modification is proposed after the original spectrum conjecture is disproved by examples such as ML(8,3,11,19)=7/30\operatorname{ML}(8,3,11,19)=7/30 and ML(5,6,11,17,23,28)=8/51\operatorname{ML}(5,6,11,17,23,28)=8/51. The paper reports experimental support and proves special cases, but does not establish the amended conjecture in general.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Ho Tin Fan and Alec Sun, “Amending the Lonely Runner Spectrum Conjecture”, arXiv:2306.10417 (2026).

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