ENCYCLOPEDIA 4U .com



Encyclopedia Home Page

Google
  Web Encyclopedia4u.com

 

Wall-Sun-Sun prime

In mathematics, a Wall-Sun-Sun prime is a certain kind of prime number. A prime p > 5 is called a Wall-Sun-Sun prime if p² divides u(p − (p|5)), where u(n) is the n-th Fibonacci number and (a|b) is the Legendre symbol of a and b. Wall-Sun-Sun primes are named after D. D. Wall, Z. Sun and Zhi Wei Sun; Sun and Sun showed in 1992 that if the first case of Fermat's last theorem was false for a certain prime p, then p would have to be a Wall-Sun-Sun prime. As a result, prior to Andrew Wiles' proof of Fermat's last theorem, the search for Wall-Sun-Sun primes was also the search for a counterexample to this century-old conjecture.

No Wall-Sun-Sun primes are known to date; if any exist, they must be > 3 · 1013. It has been conjectured that there are infinitely many Wall-Sun-Sun primes, but the conjecture remains unproven.

Also see

External links





Content on this web site is provided for informational purposes only. We accept no responsibility for any loss, injury or inconvenience sustained by any person resulting from information published on this site. We encourage you to verify any critical information with the relevant authorities.



Copyright © 2005 Par Web Solutions All Rights reserved.
| Privacy

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Wall-Sun-Sun prime".