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I read in an article of Erdős ("Extremal problems in number theory") that he had a proof of the multiplicative version of the Erdős-Turán conjecture. The statement of this theorem is

Let $a_1 < a_2 < \cdots$ and denote by $g(n)$ the number of solutions to $n=a_ia_j$. Then $g(n)>0$ for all $n>n_0$ implies $$\limsup_{n\to \infty} \ g(n)=\infty.$$

He also claims that this follows under the weaker assumption: let $A(x)=\sum_{a_i < x} 1$. Assume that for every $k$ we have $$\limsup_{x\to \infty} \ A(x)\left(x\left(\frac{\log\log x}{\log x}\right) ^k \right)^{-1}=\infty$$ than the same conclusion follows. However he also says that the proofs are difficult and haven't been published yet.

Since that article is from 1965 I am assuming he must have published something about this theorem afterward, but I don't have a reference. I have seen a proof of the first statement before (not by Erdős), but not the second one. Does anyone know if these proofs were published, simplified or generalized?

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Yes.

P. Erdõs: On the multiplicative representation of integers, Israel J. Math. 2 (1964), 251--261 (see: http://www.renyi.hu/~p_erdos/1964-20.pdf )

A somewhat different proof is given in:

Nešetřil, Rödl, Two proofs in combinatorial number theory. Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 93 (1985), no. 1, 185–188.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thanks! Now I'm wondering why he said he hadn't published these proofs in an article he published a couple of months later.. :) $\endgroup$ Dec 17, 2010 at 23:08
  • $\begingroup$ Maybe he wrote the IJM paper as a consequence of the other article? $\endgroup$ Dec 17, 2010 at 23:20
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There is a generalization of Erdos' theorem in my paper "Multiplicative representations of integers," Israel Journal of Mathematics 57 (1987), 129--136.

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    $\begingroup$ Welcome, Dr. Nathanson. $\endgroup$ Dec 18, 2010 at 2:46

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