Hildebrand's consecutive stable-set intersection conjecture

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Let S⊆N\mathcal{S}\subseteq\mathbb{N} be a stable set, meaning that for every natural number dd, the set of nn for which membership of nn and dndn in S\mathcal{S} differs has density 00. Write d‾(A)\underline{d}(A) for the lower density of AA.

Hildebrand's conjecture. If S\mathcal{S} has positive lower density, then for every natural number kk,

d‾(S∩(S+1)∩(S+2)∩⋯∩(S+(k−1)))>0.\underline{d}\bigl(\mathcal{S}\cap(\mathcal{S}+1)\cap(\mathcal{S}+2)\cap\cdots\cap(\mathcal{S}+(k-1))\bigr)>0.

This conjecture generalizes the known two-set result that stable sets of positive lower density contain many consecutive pairs. The paper provides a counterexample, so the conjecture is refuted.

References

Primary source

Redmond McNamara, “A counterexample to Hildebrand's conjecture on stable sets”, arXiv:2312.08544 (2025).

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