Re: Mersenne: Factoring

[Jud McCranie]

At 04:27 PM 9/21/99 -0700, Eric Hahn wrote:
We know that any factor of 2^p-1 is in the form 2kp+1.
>Letting x >=2,
>   Can (2kp+1)^x = 2^p-1 ??
>   Can (2kp+1)^x * (2kp+1) ... = 2^p-1 ??


No known factors of Mersenne numbers have x>1, but it hasn't been proven 
that it is impossible.


+---------------------------------------------------------+
|     Jud McCranie                                        |
|                                                         |
| Programming Achieved with Structure, Clarity, And Logic |
+---------------------------------------------------------+


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