30 Dec
2005
30 Dec
'05
11:09 p.m.
Rich wrote: << There's a new Mersenne prime, 2 ^ 30,402,457 - 1. 9.2 million digits. More details at www.mersenne.org.
I'm curious if people are searching for new Mersenne primes just for the fun of the hunt, or if there is a deeper reason, such as to gather evidence bearing on some conjecture(s) about them (or evidence for potentially formulating some conjecture about them). Question: Is it known that there exist infinitely many Mersenne primes? If not, what is the evidence for and against? --Dan