Merca–Ono–Tsai finiteness conjecture for near-perfect powers of partition numbers

From papers

For fixed integers k>1k>1 and d0d\geq 0, define the distance from p(n)p(n) to the closest kkth power by

Δk(n):=min{p(n)mk:mZ}.\Delta_k(n):=\min\left\{|p(n)-m^k|:m\in\mathbb{Z}\right\}.

Merca–Ono–Tsai's finiteness conjecture. For fixed integers k>1k>1 and d0d\geq 0, there are at most finitely many nn for which Δk(n)d\Delta_k(n)\leq d. This finiteness assertion is used to define the maximal such nn, but no resolution is given in the source.

Progress summary

Nothing recorded yet. Refresh searches the literature and the public web for attempts on this problem, and writes the first summary here.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Summer Haag, Praneel Samanta, Swati, Holly Swisher, Stephanie Treneer and Robin Visser, “Repellent properties of perfect powers on partition functions: a heuristic approach”, arXiv:2601.18138 (2026).

Solutions 0

No solutions have been posted yet.