2012/08/21 by Robert J. Betts, Betts, Robert J.
Mathematics · #11P99 #68R01 #FOS: Mathematics #Number Theory (math.NT) #math.NT #msc:11P99 #msc:68R01
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1208.4268
24 pages, two additional Tables, some corollaries added, no figures
arxiv created 2015/11/28 · arxiv updated 2015/12/01
Every positive integer greater than a positive integer r can be written as an integer that is the sum of powers of r. Here we use this to prove the conjecture posed by Ronald Graham, B. Rothschild and Joel Spencer back in the nineteen nineties, that the van der Waerden number with r colorings and with arithmetic progressions of k terms, has a certain upper bound. Our proof does not need the application of double induction, constructive methods of proof or combinatorics, as applied to sets of integers that contain some van der Waerden number as an element. The proof instead derives from certain a priori knowledge that is known about any positive integer when the integer is large. The mathematical methods we use are easily accessible by those whose field of specialization lies outside of combinatorial number theory, such as discrete mathematics, computational complexity, elementary number theory or analytic number theory.