Shengtao Guo, Ethan X. Fang, and Junwei Lu claim Odin discovered a proof giving a dimension-independent bound for the Komlós signing problem and square-root Beck–Fiala discrepancy, potentially establishing a major mathematical discovery by an AI research agent.

state: seedheat: lowuncertainty: highnovelscott: lowai-assisted-mathematics research-agents automated-theorem-provingShengtao GuoEthan X. FangJunwei LuOdin

What is this?

The case attributes to Shengtao Guo, Ethan X. Fang, and Junwei Lu a claim that an AI system called Odin discovered a proof of a dimension-independent 3√(2π) bound for the Komlós signing problem, also yielding square-root Beck–Fiala discrepancy. The supplied mathematical snippets establish the significance: Komlós asks whether unit-length vectors can always be signed so every coordinate of their sum stays within a universal constant, and implies the related Beck–Fiala conjecture about balancing set systems. However, none of the web results corroborates the claimed paper, its authorship, Odin’s identity or contribution, or independent verification; the institutional snippets describe weaker, logarithmically dependent bounds rather than this claimed resolution.

Why it matters to Scott

An independently verified AI-originated discovery could bear on Scott’s Formalisation Bottleneck claim that choosing what to formalise is the scarce skill, but the supplied material establishes neither Odin’s contribution nor the proof’s validity; no substantive challenge or convergence is demonstrated yet. The radar tracks research agents and theorem proving, but the supplied hits do not establish prior coverage of this Odin/Komlós claim.

ip:concept.formalisation-bottleneckradar:concept.research-agentsradar:concept.theorem-proving

queries asked of Scott's wikis

autonomous research agents original discovery versus benchmark performance
agent verification harnesses independent validation
AI mathematical proofs formal verification theorem proving
human AI collaboration autonomy attribution provenance
long-horizon research agents reasoning reliability

Measured heat

now 0 pts/hpeak 0 pts/hcomments 0/hpeers p0momentum: steady2 platformsage 770h

points/hour across evidence · reading as of 2026-10-12 02:59:37.977291+11:00 · deterministic, not a model opinion

How the heat travelled

09-09 14:00	⭐ origin echo-reconstructed	The paper claims a 3√(2π) bound for the Komlós signing problem and the square-root dependence predicted by the Beck–Fiala conjecture, statin Shengtao Guo, Ethan X. Fang, and Junwei Lu on paper (echo) · attributed from reddit.post.1wexzzr	—
09-13 04:40	first on r/singularity · published · +86.7h	Mysterious AI system, "Odin," is credited with discovering a proof of the Komlós conjecture badumtsssst	—
09-13 04:40	amplified on r/singularity 👑	reddit.post.1wexzzr badumtsssst	peak 115 · 20 comments · 78% of case engagement
09-13 13:41	amplified on r/singularity	reddit.post.1wf8030 Old-School8916	peak 35 · 4 comments · 22% of case engagement
09-13 05:20	our radar first saw it · +87.3h	discovery anchor: reddit.post.1wexzzr	—

pace: p72 vs 519 stories at the 720h mark (now 770h old) — ahead of gvs5h-qwen38-coding-ensemble (1.0x), behind nvidia-pair-local-inference-router (1.0x)

Evidence (3) — ⭐ canonical anchor

source	object	author	score	comments
🟠 reddit	Mysterious AI system, "Odin," is credited with discovering a proof of the Komlós conjecture singularity Retrieved article excerpt Open article · Retrieved 2026-09-13T05:21:53.066146+00:00 # Mathematics > Combinatorics arXiv:2609.11189 (math) [Submitted on 10 Sep 2026] # Title:Vector Balancing via Directional Total Variation Authors:[Shengtao Guo](https://arxiv.org/search/math?searchtype=author&query=Guo,+S), [Ethan X. Fang](https://arxiv.org/search/math?searchtype=author&query=Fang,+E+X), [Junwei Lu](https://arxiv.org/search/math?searchtype=author&query=Lu,+J) View a PDF of the paper titled Vector Balancing via Directional Total Variation, by Shengtao Guo and 2 other authors [View PDF](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2609.11189) [HTML (experimental)](https://arxiv.org/html/2609.11189v1) > Abstract:Our main result is a $3\sqrt{2\pi}$ bound for the Komlós signing problem: every finite family of real vectors of Euclidean norm at most one admits a signed sum of $\ell\_\infty$-norm less than this constant, independently of the dimension and the family size. For any $\kappa\ge0$, if a bounded open convex set supports a probability density with directional total variation at most $\kappa$ in every unit direction, then its open-set Banaszczyk transform supports another such density with the same $\kappa$, provided the translation vector $v$ satisfies $\kappa\\|v\\|\_2\le1/3$. As a consequence, every finite set system in which each element belongs to at most $t$ sets, where $t\ge1$ is an integer, admits a two-coloring whose imbalance in each set is less than $3\sqrt{2\pi t}$. This gives the square-root dependence predicted by the Beck-Fiala conjecture. The proof was discovered by the Odin Automatic AI Research Agent. \| \| \| --- \| \| Comments: \| \| Subjects: \| Combinatorics (math.CO); Functional Analysis (math.FA) \| \| Cite as: \| [arXiv:2609.11189](https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.11189) [math.CO] \| \| \| (or [arXiv:2609.11189v1](https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.11189v1) [math.CO] for this version) \| \| \| <https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2609.11189> Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite \| ## Submission history From: Shengtao Guo [[view email](https://arxiv.org/show-email/2cf34991/2609.11189)] [v1] Thu, 10 Sep 2026 07:54:44 UTC (23 KB) Full-text links: ## Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Vector Balancing via Directional Total Variation, by Shengtao Guo and 2 other authors - [View PDF](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2609.11189) - [HTML (experimental)](https://arxiv.org/html/2609.11189v1) - [TeX Source](https://arxiv.org/src/2609.11189) [view license](http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/ "Rights to this article") ### Current browse context: math.CO [< prev](https://arxiv.org/prevnext?id=2609.11189&function=prev&context=math.CO "previous in math.CO (accesskey p)") \| [next >](https://arxiv.org/prevnext?id=2609.11189&function=next&context=math.CO "next in math.CO (accesskey n)") [new](https://arxiv.org/list/math.CO/new) \| [recent](https://arxiv.org/list/math.CO/recent) \| [2026-09](https://arxiv.org/list/math.CO/2026-09) Change to browse by: [math](https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.11189?context=math) [math.FA](https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.11189?context=math.FA) ### References & Citations - [NASA ADS](https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/arXiv:2609.11189) - [Google Scholar](https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?arxiv_id=2609.11189) - [Semantic Scholar](https://api.semanticscholar.org/arXiv:2609.11189) export BibTeX citation Loading... ## BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: ### Bookmark [BibSonomy](http://www.bibsonomy.org/BibtexHandler?requTask=upload&url=https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.11189&description=Vector Balancing via Directional Total Variation "Bookmark on BibSonomy") [Reddit](https://reddit.com/submit?url=https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.11189&title=Vector Balancing via Directional Total Variation "Bookmark on Reddit") Bibliographic Tools # Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer ([What is the Explorer?](https://info.arxiv.org/labs/showcase.html#arxiv-bibliographic-explorer)) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers ([What is Connected Papers?](https://www.connectedpapers.com/about)) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps ([What is Litmaps?](https://www.litmaps.co/)) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations ([What are Smart Citations?](https://www.scite.ai/)) Code, Data, Media # Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv ([What is alphaXiv?](https://alphaxiv.org/)) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers ([What is CatalyzeX?](https://www.catalyzex.com)) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub ([What is DagsHub?](https://dagshub.com/)) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub ([What is GotitPub?](http://gotit.pub/faq)) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face ([What is Huggingface?](https://huggingface.co/huggingface)) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast ([What is ScienceCast?](https://sciencecast.org/welcome)) Demos # Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate ([What is Replicate?](https://replicate.com/docs/arxiv/about)) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces ([What is Spaces?](https://huggingface.co/docs/hub/spaces)) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI ([What is TXYZ.AI?](https://txyz.ai)) Related Papers # Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower ([What are Influence Flowers?](https://influencemap.cmlab.dev/)) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender ([What is CORE?](https://core.ac.uk/services/recommender)) - Author - Venue - Institution - Topic About arXivLabs # arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? [Learn more about arXivLabs](https://info.arxiv.org/labs/index.html). [Which authors of this paper are endorsers?](https://arxiv.org/auth/show-endorsers/2609.11189) \| Disable MathJax ([What is MathJax?](https://info.arxiv.org/help/mathjax.html))	badumtsssst	110	20
🟧 echo.paper ⭐	The paper claims a 3√(2π) bound for the Komlós signing problem and the square-root dependence predicted by the Beck–Fiala conjecture, statin	Shengtao Guo, Ethan X. Fang, and Junwei Lu	—	—
🟠 reddit	Claimed proof of the Komlós conjecture using AI singularity	Old-School8916	35	3

source

object

author

score

comments

🟠 reddit

Mysterious AI system, "Odin," is credited with discovering a proof of the Komlós conjecture

singularity

Retrieved article excerpt

Open article · Retrieved 2026-09-13T05:21:53.066146+00:00

# Mathematics > Combinatorics

**arXiv:2609.11189** (math)

[Submitted on 10 Sep 2026]

# Title:Vector Balancing via Directional Total Variation

Authors:[Shengtao Guo](https://arxiv.org/search/math?searchtype=author&query=Guo,+S), [Ethan X. Fang](https://arxiv.org/search/math?searchtype=author&query=Fang,+E+X), [Junwei Lu](https://arxiv.org/search/math?searchtype=author&query=Lu,+J)

View a PDF of the paper titled Vector Balancing via Directional Total Variation, by Shengtao Guo and 2 other authors

[View PDF](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2609.11189)
[HTML (experimental)](https://arxiv.org/html/2609.11189v1)
> Abstract:Our main result is a $3\sqrt{2\pi}$ bound for the Komlós signing problem: every finite family of real vectors of Euclidean norm at most one admits a signed sum of $\ell\_\infty$-norm less than this constant, independently of the dimension and the family size. For any $\kappa\ge0$, if a bounded open convex set supports a probability density with directional total variation at most $\kappa$ in every unit direction, then its open-set Banaszczyk transform supports another such density with the same $\kappa$, provided the translation vector $v$ satisfies $\kappa\|v\|\_2\le1/3$. As a consequence, every finite set system in which each element belongs to at most $t$ sets, where $t\ge1$ is an integer, admits a two-coloring whose imbalance in each set is less than $3\sqrt{2\pi t}$. This gives the square-root dependence predicted by the Beck-Fiala conjecture. The proof was discovered by the Odin Automatic AI Research Agent.

|  |
| --- |
| Comments: |
| Subjects: | Combinatorics (math.CO); Functional Analysis (math.FA) |
| Cite as: | [arXiv:2609.11189](https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.11189) [math.CO] |
|  | (or  [arXiv:2609.11189v1](https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.11189v1) [math.CO] for this version) |
|  | <https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2609.11189> Focus to learn more  arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite |

## Submission history

From: Shengtao Guo [[view email](https://arxiv.org/show-email/2cf34991/2609.11189)]   
 **[v1]**
Thu, 10 Sep 2026 07:54:44 UTC (23 KB)

Full-text links:

## Access Paper:

View a PDF of the paper titled Vector Balancing via Directional Total Variation, by Shengtao Guo and 2 other authors

- [View PDF](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2609.11189)
- [HTML (experimental)](https://arxiv.org/html/2609.11189v1)
- [TeX Source](https://arxiv.org/src/2609.11189)

[view license](http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/ "Rights to this article")

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badumtsssst

110

🟧 echo.paper ⭐

The paper claims a 3√(2π) bound for the Komlós signing problem and the square-root dependence predicted by the Beck–Fiala conjecture, statin

Shengtao Guo, Ethan X. Fang, and Junwei Lu

—

🟠 reddit

Claimed proof of the Komlós conjecture using AI

singularity

Old-School8916

Interpretation history

2026-09-15T07:31:25Z
Discussion adds an unverified, secondhand allegation about an earlier paper by the same authors, not a technical objection to this proof. Neither correctness nor Odin’s contribution has gained independent support, so the case remains an unvalidated discovery claim.
2026-09-13T14:26:58Z
The additional Reddit post repeats the same paper claim rather than independently validating the mathematics or Odin’s role. This remains a potentially major but unverified discovery claim; repeated coverage does not justify higher attention.
2026-09-13T14:22:02Z
evidence attached: reddit.post.1wf8030 — shared external link with case evidence
2026-09-13T05:24:46Z
grounded: novel/low — An independently verified AI-originated discovery could bear on Scott’s Formalisation Bottleneck claim that choosing what to formalise is the scarce skill, but
2026-09-13T05:22:05Z
case created — A first-party paper presents a specific major proof claim distinct from existing mathematics cases, although correctness and the agent's contribution remain unvalidated.

Decision trace

10-11 15:38review_dormant28 days without material information; scheduled checks stopped
10-08 22:58drop_targetsquiet through full ladder or over cap 8
09-15 17:31repriceDiscussion adds an unverified, secondhand allegation about an earlier paper by the same authors, not a technical objection to this proof. Neither correctness nor Odin’s contribution has gained indepen
09-15 17:31review_screenscreen failed: RuntimeError: litellm codex-luna exhausted: HTTPError: HTTP Error 503: Service Unavailable
09-14 09:21review_screenThe new comments are speculation and opinions about the same already-known paper, without independent verification, a new result, or consequential evidence.
09-14 09:20sensor_dirtycomment_update
09-14 00:26repriceThe additional Reddit post repeats the same paper claim rather than independently validating the mathematics or Odin’s role. This remains a potentially major but unverified discovery claim; repeated c
09-14 00:22attachshared external link with case evidence
09-14 00:21propose_attachshared external link with case evidence
09-13 15:24groundAn independently verified AI-originated discovery could bear on Scott’s Formalisation Bottleneck claim that choosing what to formalise is the scarce skill, but the supplied material establishes neithe
09-13 15:22createA first-party paper presents a specific major proof claim distinct from existing mathematics cases, although correctness and the agent's contribution remain unvalidated.