interesting claim

[igor]

I came across the following post:

http://listserv.nodak.edu/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind0212&L=nmbrthry&P=R2072

Does it mean that this chinese individual is able to demonstrate, directly or indirectly, that 10 out of 12 remaining candidates produce a prime?
That would be a breakthrough.

[Frodo42]

If there is something to it then it might be a idea to use all of SoB's power to find primes for 19249 and 67607.
I don't quite understand if what he means is that he has found the 10 other primes or that he can show that the 10 others contain primes if these two do?
But if he alreade has found 10 numbers with primes, then thats worth publishing or?

Anyway it might be worth contacting this person, it could save a lot of work.

[eatmadustch]

I could be wrong, but I doubt that this person really does have proof that the other k values will have a prime. If he WERE in the position to know that he would have had to do lots of research and therefore heard of efforts to solve the sirpinski problem, like seventeen or bust. And then he would very probably of informed someonefrom SoB if he did have a proof. So if he hasn't heard of SoB I doubt he knows all that much about the Sirpinski Problem.
I could be wrong, I could be judging this person badly, but it's just a guess!

[igor]

Originally posted by eatmadustch
I could be wrong, but I doubt that this person really does have proof that the other k values will have a prime. If he WERE in the position to know that he would have had to do lots of research and therefore heard of efforts to solve the sirpinski problem, like seventeen or bust. And then he would very probably of informed someonefrom SoB if he did have a proof. So if he hasn't heard of SoB I doubt he knows all that much about the Sirpinski Problem.
I could be wrong, I could be judging this person badly, but it's just a guess!

I guess I have to apologize for not paying attention. After rereding his post, it's clear that he's talking about prime powers, not primes. And his title does contain the word "variation". But in either case, sounds like an interesting side result if it checks out, and who knows, maybe some of the methods he uses can be applied to the Sierpinski problem itself.

Igor

[eatmadustch]

what are prime powers?

[Nuri]

Oooops! I'm lost. :crazy:


http://mathworld.wolfram.com/PrimePower.html

Prime Power

A prime or integer power of a prime. The first few are 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 16, 17, 19, 23, 25, ... (Sloane's A000961). The first few prime powers with power are given by 4, 8, 9, 16, 25, 27, 32, 49, 64, 81, ... (Sloane's A025475).

(Hardy 1999, p. 27).

PS: Lost about the question if he is looking for the same thing or not. :confused:

[jjjjL]

yeah, i was as interested as all you were when i saw his post. i emailed him and he has clarified what he means.

his conjecture is different and does not change how our search will operate. our search my eventually help him prove his conjecture as well but not the other way around. i'm seeing what i can do now to help him now.

thanks igor for pointing out his work, interesting to see related material.

-Louie

[Cowering]

Except for maybe not having enough sieved numbers ready for testing, what would be wrong with diverting SorB CPU power into searching for primes on those two chinese numbers?

All other things being equal, it would help him and we would be on the same quest as always, just more focused.

Is there some theory or guesstimate as to how high N has to be before you 'give up'? Maybe the same paper that surmised the lowest Ser. # also sets a possible high limit.