Almost all primes are partially regular
Evan Chen, Chris Cummins, Ben Eltschig, Dejan Grubisic, Leopold Haller, Letong Hong, Andranik Kurghinyan, Kenny Lau, Hugh Leather, Seewoo Lee, Aram Markosyan, Ken Ono, Manooshree Patel, Gaurang Pendharkar, Vedant Rathi, Alex Schneidman, Volker Seeker, Shubho Sengupta, Ishan Sinha, Jimmy Xin, Jujian Zhang
math.NT
Feb 4, 2026 · v1
TL;DR
Theorem on partial regularity of almost all primes is fully formalized in Lean/Mathlib, produced automatically by AxiomProver.
Abstract
For odd primes $p$, we let $K_p:=\mathbb{Q}(ζ_p)$ be the $p$th cyclotomic field and let $ω$ denote its Teichmuller character. For $α>1/2$, we say that an odd prime $p$ is partially regular if the eigenspaces of the $p$-Sylow subgroup of $\operatorname{Cl}(K_p)$ under the Galois action vanish for all characters $ω^{p-2k}$ with \[ 2\le 2k \le \frac{\sqrt{p}}{(\log p)^α}. \] Equivalently, $p\nmid \operatorname{num}(B_{2k})$ throughout this range. We prove that a density-one subset of primes is partially regular in this sense. By Leopoldt reflection, this yields a partial Vandiver Theorem: for a density-one set of primes $p$, the even eigenspaces $A_p(ω^{2k})$ vanish for all even $2k$ satisfying the inequality above. This result has consequences for Kubota-Leopoldt $p$-adic $L$-functions, congruences between cusp forms and Eisenstein series, and $p$-torsion in algebraic $K$-groups. The theorem proving partial regularity for almost all $p$ is fully formalized in Lean/Mathlib and was produced automatically by AxiomProver from a natural-language statement of the conjecture.
Problem
Regular primes (those not dividing any Bernoulli numerator in a certain range) are central to Kummer's approach to Fermat's Last Theorem, but proving that most primes satisfy even a partial regularity condition has remained open.
Approach
The authors prove that a density-one subset of primes is partially regular: for alpha > 1/2, the eigenspaces of the p-Sylow subgroup of the class group of the p-th cyclotomic field vanish for all characters omega^{p-2k} with 2 <= 2k <= sqrt(p)/(log p)^alpha. The theorem was fully formalized in Lean/Mathlib and produced automatically by AxiomProver from a natural-language statement.
Results
Almost all primes are partially regular in this sense. By Leopoldt reflection, this yields a partial Vandiver theorem for a density-one set of primes. The result has consequences for Kubota-Leopoldt p-adic L-functions, congruences between cusp forms and Eisenstein series, and p-torsion in algebraic K-groups. The full proof is machine-verified in Lean.