Gaussian Prime
Gaussian primes are Gaussian integers
satisfying
one of the following properties.
1. If both
and
are nonzero then,
is a Gaussian prime iff
is an ordinary prime.
2. If
, then
is a Gaussian
prime iff
is an ordinary
prime and
.
3. If
, then
is a Gaussian prime
iff
is an ordinary
prime and
.
The above plot of the complex plane shows the Gaussian
primes as filled squares.
The primes which are also Gaussian primes are 3, 7, 11, 19, 23, 31, 43, ... (OEIS A002145). The Gaussian primes with
are
given by
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
, 3,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
.
The numbers of Gaussian primes
with complex
modulus
(where the definition
has been used) for
, 1, ... are
0, 100, 4928, 313752, ... (OEIS A091134).
The cover of Bressoud and Wagon (2000) shows an illustration of the distribution
of Gaussian primes in the complex plane.
As of 2009, the largest known Gaussian prime, found in Sep. 2006, is
,
whose real and imaginary parts both have
decimal digits
and whose squared complex modulus has
digits.
SEE ALSO: Eisenstein Prime,
Gaussian Integer,
Moat-Crossing Problem,
Prime
Number
REFERENCES:
Bressoud, D. M. and Wagon, S. A
Course in Computational Number Theory. London: Springer-Verlag, 2000.
Caldwell, C. "Gaussian Mersenne Norm." http://primes.utm.edu/top20/page.php?id=41.
Gethner, E.; Wagon, S.; and Wick, B. "A Stroll Through the Gaussian Primes."
Amer. Math. Monthly 105, 327-337, 1998.
Guy, R. K. "Gaussian Primes. Eisenstein-Jacobi Primes." §A16 in Unsolved
Problems in Number Theory, 2nd ed. New York: Springer-Verlag, pp. 33-36,
1994.
Hardy, G. H. and Wright, E. M. "Primes in
" and "The
Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic in
." §12.7
and 12.8 in An
Introduction to the Theory of Numbers, 5th ed. Oxford, England: Clarendon
Press, pp. 183-187, 1979.
Rademacher, H. Topics
in Analytic Number Theory. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1973.
Sloane, N. J. A. Sequences A002145/M2624, A091100, and A091134
in "The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences."
Smith, H. J. "Gaussian Primes." http://www.geocities.com/hjsmithh/GPrimes.html.
Wagon, S. "Gaussian Primes." §9.4 in Mathematica
in Action. New York: W. H. Freeman, pp. 298-303, 1991.
Wells, D. The Penguin Dictionary of Curious and Interesting Geometry. London: Penguin,
p. 85, 1991.
Zariski, O. and Samuel, P. Commutative
Algebra I. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1958.
Referenced on Wolfram|Alpha:
Gaussian Prime
CITE THIS AS:
Weisstein, Eric W. "Gaussian Prime." From
MathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource. http://mathworld.wolfram.com/GaussianPrime.html