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835 | Erdős Problems
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Does there exist a $k>2$ such that the $k$-sized subsets of $\{1,\ldots,2k\}$ can be coloured with $k+1$ colours such that for every $A\subset \{1,\ldots,2k\}$ with $\lvert A\rvert=k+1$ all $k+1$ colours appear among the $k$-sized subsets of $A$?
A problem of Erdős and Rosenfeld. This is trivially possible for $k=2$. They were not sure about $k=6$.

This is equivalent to asking whether there exists $k>2$ such that the chromatic number of the Johnson graph $J(2k,k)$ is $k+1$ (it is always at least $k+1$ and at most $2k$). The chromatic numbers listed at this website show that this is false for $3\leq k\leq 8$.

Ma and Tang have proved that the chromatic number of $J(2k,k)$ is $>k+1$ for all $k>2$ not of the form $p-1$ for prime $p$.
Additional thanks to: eigensolver, Bhavik Mehta, and Quanyu Tang
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This page was last edited 22 January 2026. (View history) (View the LaTeX source)

When referring to this problem, please use the original sources of Erdős. If you wish to acknowledge this website, the recommended citation format is:

T. F. Bloom, Erdős Problem #835, https://www.erdosproblems.com/835, accessed 2026-11-14

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