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Fast formal proof of the Erdős-Szekeres conjecture for convex polygons with at most 6 points. (English) Zbl 07038739
Summary: A conjecture originally made by Klein and Szekeres in 1932 (now commonly known as “Erdős-Szekeres” or “Happy Ending” conjecture) claims that for every $$m \geq 3$$, every set of $$2^{m-2}+1$$ points in a general position (none three different points are collinear) contains a convex $$m$$-gon. The conjecture has been verified for $$m \leq 6$$. The case $$m=6$$ was solved by Szekeres and Peters and required a huge computer enumeration that took “more than 3000 GHz hours”. In this paper we improve the solution in several directions. By changing the problem representation, by employing symmetry-breaking and by using modern SAT solvers, we reduce the proving time to around only a half of an hour on an ordinary PC computer (i.e., our proof requires only around 1 GHz hour). Also, we formalize the proof within the Isabelle/HOL proof assistant, making it significantly more reliable.

##### MSC:
 68T15 Theorem proving (deduction, resolution, etc.) (MSC2010)
##### Software:
Coq; DRAT-trim; HOL Light; Isabelle/HOL
Full Text:
##### References:
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