A newly discovered prime number makes its debut

On December 26, 2017, J. Pace, G. Woltman, S. Kurowski, A. Blosser, and their co-authors announced the discovery of a new prime number: 2⁷⁷²³²⁹¹⁷-1. It's an excellent opportunity to take a small tour through the ...

GIMPS project discovers largest known prime number

The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) has discovered the largest known prime number, 277,232,917-1, having 23,249,425 digits. A computer volunteered by Jonathan Pace made the find on December 26, 2017.

Quantum physics offers new way to factor numbers

(Phys.org)—Any number can, in theory, be written as the product of prime numbers. For small numbers, this is easy (for example, the prime factors of 12 are 2, 2, and 3), but for large numbers, prime factorization becomes ...

Progress finally being made on understanding ABC proof

(Phys.org)—A team of mathematicians met last week at Kyoto University in another attempt to understand a proof unveiled almost four years ago by Shinichi Mochizuki—one that he claims offers a proof of the ABC conjecture. ...

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