On the existence of a reasonable upper bound for the van der Waerden numbers (Q1117262)

Let q(n) be the least positive integer such that if \(\{\) 1,2,...,q(n)\(\}\) is 2-colored, then there exists a monochrome sequence \(\{x_ 1<x_ 2<...<x_ n\}\subseteq \{1,2,...,q(n)\}\) that either forms an arithmetic sequence or for which there exists a polynomial f with integral coefficients and positive leading coefficient such that \(x_{j+1}=f(x_ j)\). The authors prove that \(q(n)\leq n!^{(n-2)!/2}\) for \(n\geq 4\) and give that \(q(3)=7\), \(q(4)=21\), \(q(5)=85\). Then they show that a stronger upper bound for q(n) implies a similar upper bound on the n-th van der Waerden number.