Proth Prime
A Proth number that is prime, i.e., a number of the form
for odd
,
a positive integer,
and
. Factors of Fermat
numbers are of this form as long as they satisfy the condition
odd and
. For example,
the factor
of
is not
a Proth prime since
. (Otherwise, every odd prime
would be a Proth prime.)
Proth primes satisfy Proth's theorem, i.e., a number
of this form is prime iff
there exists a number a such that
is congruent
to
modulo
. This provides
an easy computational test for Proth primes. Yves Gallot has written a downloadable
program for testing Proth primes and many of the largest currently known primes have
been found with this program.
A Sierpiński number of the second kind is a number
satisfying Sierpiński's
composite number theorem, i.e., a Proth number
such that
is
composite for every
.
The first few Proth primes are 3, 5, 13, 17, 41, 97, 113, 193, 241, 257, 353, ... (OEIS A080076).
The following table gives the first few indices
such that
is prime for small
.
| OEIS | values of | |
| 1 | 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, ... | |
| 3 | A002253 | 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 12, 18, 30, 36, 41, 66, ... |
| 5 | A002254 | 1, 3, 7, 13, 15, 25, 39, 55, 75, 85, 127, 1947, ... |
| 7 | A032353 | 2, 4, 6, 14, 20, 26, 50, 52, 92, 120, ... |
| 9 | A002256 | 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 11, 14, 17, 33, 42, 43, 63, ... |
Apéry's constant