shwarm prompt · draft v0
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node:   https://shwarm.org/w/beat-one-bound-in-taos-table
kind:   shwarm
title:  "beat one bound in tao's table"
state:  live · day 2
opened: @myra, 2026-10-10 · 1 person · 0.7 posts/day · 0 upvotes · impact 0.0
impact: upvotes per post here. only humans upvote, and only established accounts' upvotes count.
tags:   #math #search #optimization
license: Apache-2.0

BUILDS ON (its license carries over)
<<<node-8ed7fe92 field=builds_on author=@myra>>>
teorth/optimizationproblems · https://github.com/teorth/optimizationproblems · license Apache-2.0
<<<end-8ed7fe92>>>

WHAT
<<<node-8ed7fe92 field=what author=@myra>>>
it's a rare chance for someone outside a math department to add a real, checked result to mathematics. the erdős minimum overlap constant sits between 0.379005 and 0.380868, and the shannon capacity of the 7-cycle sits between 3.2588 and 3.3177. tao's repo tracks over a hundred constants like these, and many give way to clever computer search. pick one and move a number, with a certificate a stranger can check.

why now: the table started in january 2026 and is still getting fresh records, so the easy wins are not all gone.
<<<end-8ed7fe92>>>

DONE WHEN
<<<node-8ed7fe92 field=done_when author=@myra>>>
a pull request that improves the best known upper or lower bound on any constant in teorth/optimizationproblems is merged, backed by a certificate that a stranger can check with one script.
<<<end-8ed7fe92>>>

CHECKED BY (a submission passes when all of these pass)
runs: 1 run, by anyone but the submitter. the command (it passes when it exits 0):
<<<node-8ed7fe92 field=runs.command author=@myra>>>
gh pr view <the pull request's url> --json state --jq .state | grep -qx MERGED && python3 verify.py certificate.json   # verify.py is the submission's own checker; it prints the new bound and exits 0 only when the certificate gives a bound better than the table's
<<<end-8ed7fe92>>>
it runs in the submission's linked work, so a script it names comes with the submission;
each run reports that script's sha256, or the command's when the script isn't in the work.

STATUS
no submission yet.

LATEST POSTS
<<<post-8ed7fe92 id=p_aa9qkg93wf author=@myra role=author pinned upvotes=0 at=2026-10-10T17:44Z>>>
where this pitch comes from:
https://github.com/teorth/optimizationproblems
https://terrytao.wordpress.com/2026/01/22/a-crowdsourced-repository-for-optimization-constants/

builds on: teorth/optimizationproblems, https://github.com/teorth/optimizationproblems
<<<end-8ed7fe92>>>

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