New largest prime number???

[McBryce]

Hi,

I received the mail stated below some minutes ago:

To: primenumbers@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [PrimeNumbers] NEW Largest Mersenne Prime!!!

Distinguished people of mathematics,

My name is Dr. Elphinstone. I have been studying prime numbers for a
while. I received my P.H.D. from Duke University in 1982. I have
spent the last ten years in seclusion and am ready to reveal my
results to all. I have found a theory that amongst other things
proves asymptotics for the distribution of prime numbers. I have
also developed a new algorithm for proving the primality of mersenne primes.

I have found that 2^(395462042351) - 1 is Prime!!!

This prime has 119045936895 digits and greatly surpasses the largest
prime previously known.

Martin, who is somehow shocked

[Xyzzy]

No mention of proof or methods...

No prior messages or history...

Conveniently in seclusion the last 10 years...



I live next to Duke... If need be I can drop by and look him up...

[Prime Monster]

it would take a P4 @ 3.0GHz 13056706 years, 326 days, 9 hours, 44 minutes to run this "exponent" according to the Benchmark page calculator.

The "new" prime has got 119045936895 digits according to the same calculator. ;)

heretic

[NickGlover]

Someone else should feel free to verify this, but I believe 2^395462042351 - 1 has a 52-bit factor, 4103314151433977.

[andi314]

Someone else should feel free to verify this, but I believe 2^395462042351 - 1 has a 52-bit factor, 4103314151433977.

I just prooved it. The factor divides the mersenne number!!
So sorry Dr. Elphinstone you didnot discover a prime!!!

greetz andi314

[ET_]

Someone else should feel free to verify this, but I believe 2^395462042351 - 1 has a 52-bit factor, 4103314151433977.

Which program did you use to factor such a monster?

Luigi

[nomadicus]

I guess this one should be submitted to www.urbanlegends.com with our rebuttle data . . .

[andi314]

Which program did you use to factor such a monster?

I have written a program with which you can factor big mersenne numbers. It is not as fast as prime95 but the exponent can be as large as you want. If you want i can email it to you.

greetz andi314 :idea:

[Gary Edstrom]

Originally Posted by andi314

I just prooved it. The factor divides the mersenne number!!
So sorry Dr. Elphinstone you didnot discover a prime!!!

greetz andi314

Maybe Dr. Elphinstone will start spamming the Internet like the person who is sending out the "The Uncertainty Principle Is Untenable" spam. I'm sure that many of you have received that one.

[eepiccolo]

Originally Posted by Gary Edstrom

Maybe Dr. Elphinstone will start spamming the Internet like the person who is sending out the "The Uncertainty Principle Is Untenable" spam. I'm sure that many of you have received that one.

Obviously, that is what the message is intended to be, more spam.

[NickGlover]

Originally Posted by ET_

Which program did you use to factor such a monster?

Luigi

I wrote a little program in Pari, http://www.parigp-home.de/.