[math-fun] New Mersenne Prime confirmed

Tony Reix reported this morning on the NMBRTHRY list that the Mersenne prime 2 ^ 25964951 - 1 is confirmed. A triple check is expected to finsh tomorrow. George Woltman has requested that the exponent be kept off "the web" until his press release is posted, and the discoverer's local newspaper has a chance to report it. This is probably M42. It is the largest known Mersenne prime. The next smaller MP exponent known is 24036583, giving modest support to the cluster theory. The GIMPS project is burning at about 16Tflops. Every prime exponent < 15 million has been tested at least once. There are still lots of untested numbers < 25 million, so there's a chance of another, smaller, MP being found. Rich rcs@cs.arizona.edu