The programs GIMPS searches for new examples of these numbers.
They are the subject of Wagstaff's Conjecture. The Lucas-Lehmer test is used to find these numbers. The programs GIMPS searches for new examples of these numbers. Every even perfect number is the product of one of these numbers and a corresponding power of two. The first four of these numbers are three, seven, thirty-one, and one hundred and twenty-seven. For 10 points, identify these prime numbers of the form two to the n minus one, named for a medieval French mathematician.
They are the subject of Wagstaff's Conjecture. The Lucas-Lehmer test is used to find these numbers.
{Mersenne prime} numbers [prompt on {prime} before mentioned]