A loss-accounted PreTeXt-to-JATS contract

Research-attempt provenance

Definitions and mathematical statement

Shared notation.

Standard number systems are $\mathbb N,\mathbb Z,\mathbb Q,\mathbb R,\mathbb C$. Specialized notation and index ranges follow the cited source and the definitions below.

XML represents hierarchical data with elements and attributes. PreTeXt supplies a semantic vocabulary for mathematical documents. JATS is the Journal Article Tag Suite, an XML vocabulary for journal content. Conversion maps source structure and content to a target representation; preserving meaning differs from reproducing identical page layout.

Record scope and qualifications.

The catalogue title is retained as metadata. Named certificates, contracts, bounds or frameworks in that title are not asserted as results of the original source extract. No supported vocabulary subset, conversion specification, or preservation guarantee is given. This is an interoperability task.

Catalogue screening limitation: PreTeXt software design, documentation, or publication feature request; no mathematical problem is specified by the supplied passage.

The source snapshot labels this record partially solved; this is catalogue metadata rather than independent verification of a mathematical result or the current completion of a project.

Statement recorded in the supplied source.

PreTeXt to JATS (Journal Article Tag Suite). It's an XML format. [S2]

Source status.

The supplied catalogue labels this source record partially solved; that metadata was checked against the supplied snapshot on 2026-10-11. The label is preserved for provenance and is not an independent verification of present open status or mathematical correctness.

Short English statement

Explore converting PreTeXt documents to JATS.

Sources

• S1 Ulam AI and the UnsolvedMath Contributors, UnsolvedMath: A Curated Collection of Open Mathematics Problems, record 20002158 (AIM-INFRASTRUCTURE-0058). Catalogue curation and metadata: CC BY 4.0. The source extract is retained; definitions, English summaries and qualifications are editorial additions. https://huggingface.co/datasets/ulamai/UnsolvedMath.
• S2 AIM Workshop Problem Lists, source linked by catalogue record AIM-INFRASTRUCTURE-0058. https://github.com/PreTeXtBook/community/wiki/Moderated-Problem-Session.

Preparation and review.

The original source and UnsolvedMath contributors retain attribution for the source extract. Codex (GPT-6; exact serving revision not exposed) assisted with definitions, English summaries, scope notes and formatting. No new human mathematical authorship or independently verified solution is asserted. Permanent source ID 20002158 and code AIM-INFRASTRUCTURE-0058 checked against the complete supplied registry and current repository. Distinct upstream records, including repeated questions and broad or damaged extracts, are retained for complete coverage of the source CS category. A repeated record is not a new independent conjecture. Complete mathematical-equivalence and current-literature review has not been performed. Preparation and final review follow contribution prompts C and D, with source gaps disclosed. Structural and rendering checks do not establish a new theorem or open status.

Literature and context check

The community-session source was consulted directly. Its entry is a feature or design request, without a complete formal specification. The catalogue title is editorial and is not evidence of an existing theorem. The following finite model is an auxiliary investigation; no PreTeXt implementation or project completion is asserted. The consulted NLM JATS page distinguishes three article models and corresponding tag sets, so a target tag-set profile must be chosen before claiming conformance. No JATS schema validation was performed here.

Research attempt: An information-loss test for a proposed JATS conversion

Consider a source language with nodes $(k,i,t)$: kind $k\in\{\text{theorem},\text{paragraph}\}$, identifier $i$, and text $t$. A proposed conversion emits only a target paragraph containing $t$, dropping $k$ and $i$. A theorem and an ordinary paragraph with the same text then have identical output. No inverse converter can reconstruct both source nodes: its one input would require two different outputs. Moreover a source cross-reference to $i$ has no retained target identity to resolve. Syntactic validity of the target paragraph does not repair either loss.

For a restricted reversible model, transmit an injective encoding of $(k,i,t)$ in target-supported fields or an accompanying typed record. If decoding reads those fields exactly, the composite decode-after-encode is the identity by componentwise equality. That identity requires representability and preservation of the fields; it does not follow merely because both source and target are XML. If a selected target profile cannot carry one component, a conversion can instead declare its loss explicitly and promise preservation only of the remaining observables.

Loss declarations must compose. Suppose conversion $f$ drops identifiers but preserves kind and text, and $g$ drops kind but preserves text. The composite preserves text, but cannot promise identifier or kind recovery. More generally if $I_f$ and $I_g$ are promised observables and the intermediate meaning is aligned, the universally justified common guarantee is limited to those preserved by both steps. The two-node collision witnesses why adding an apparently reversible second converter cannot reconstruct information already erased by the first.

Verification and adversarial audit

The argument is an exact analysis of the stated finite model. Its counterexample was checked by direct substitution; no PreTeXt build, browser test, or user study was run. The model's assumptions are explicit and are not asserted to describe every real document.

Audit corrections.

No tag names or schema-conformance claims are invented for the abstract target. Information preservation, declared loss, and actual JATS profile validity are different obligations.

External computation.

None; symbolic arguments and boundary checks only.

Scope and remaining gaps

The calculation identifies a concrete failed route or a restricted correctness property. Actual schema integration, transformations, usability, and compatibility with the full original feature request remain unimplemented and unverified. Thus the original agenda remains unresolved, with no claimed mathematical novelty.

Integration review.

Codex (GPT-6; exact serving revision not exposed) reviewed the written arguments and expanded layout and source-reference wrappers. Repository metadata and the production web renderer were checked using Python 3.13 and JavaScript with MathJax 3.2.2. This model-assisted review is not independent human proof verification; no PDF compilation or formal proof checking is asserted.

Completion Estimate

COMPLETION: 0% The calculations below the preserved source statement investigate a concrete route, but establish no substantiated new progress toward the entire original target. Known special cases and failed sufficient conditions are not credited as a solution.

References

The original source references and catalogue attribution are preserved in the Sources section above. The following URLs were actually consulted for this attempt; retention of an additional original reference does not claim fresh consultation of it.

• https://github.com/PreTeXtBook/community/wiki/Moderated-Problem-Session (consulted 2026-10-11).
• https://jats.nlm.nih.gov/ (consulted 2026-10-11).

Model and contributor disclosure

OpenAI gpt-6-astra, requested reasoning configuration ultra, generated this research attempt on 2026-10-11. The exact serving revision is not exposed. Codex GPT-6 performed orchestration, repository-format review, and a model-assisted mathematical audit of the written arguments; its exact serving revision is also not exposed. The mathematical route, boundary checks and final adversarial self-audit followed contribution prompts A then B in docs/contribution_prompts.md, after reading CONTRIBUTING.md. Python 3.14.2 assembled the standalone documents; any mathematical computation is specified in Verification. No theorem prover was used. No human mathematical authorship, substantial human proof correction, or independent human proof checking is asserted. Model-assisted review, source retrieval, and structural checks do not establish correctness or novelty. Full private reasoning transcripts are unavailable as reproducibility artifacts; the complete arguments, inputs and outcomes actually used are stated here or in the companion batch audit.

Final status

Unresolved as a new research contribution. This is a concrete route investigation, not a claim of new complete resolution or a current-status certification. A known answer reproduced for context does not become a new contribution. The catalogue's source-status label is preserved; this attempt status does not assert that a source-labelled solved question is open.