Definitions
In the context of the Carol/Kynea prime search, a Carol number is a number of the form [math]\displaystyle{ (b^n-1)^2-2 }[/math] and a Kynea number is a number of the form [math]\displaystyle{ (b^n+1)^2-2 }[/math]. A Carol/Kynea prime is a prime which has one of the above forms. A prime of these forms must satisfy the following criteria:
- b must be even, since if it is odd then [math]\displaystyle{ (b^n±1)^2-2 }[/math] is always even, and thus can’t be prime.
- n must be greater than or equal to 1. For any b, if n is 0 then (bn±1)2 is equal to 1, and thus yields -1 when 2 is subtracted from it. By definition -1 is not prime. If n is negative then (bn±1)2 is not necessarily an integer.
- b may be a perfect power of another integer. However these form a subset of another base’s primes (ex. Base 4 Carol/Kynea primes are Base 2 Carol/Kynea primes where n mod 2 = 0). So it not necessary to search these bases separately.
Due to the form of these numbers, they are also classified as near-square numbers (numbers of the form n2-k).
History
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