Mersenne Primes Paper - nuwen.net

All time would not suffice for the test

About.

This is a paper that I wrote when I was a high school senior. It was my Extended Essay in Mathematics for the International Baccalaureate program (they now hold the copyright to it). As I wrote this a fair amount of time ago, some numbers are wrong (the ones that relate to current events), the Mersenne FAQ has changed locations, and I no longer believe in the existence of a hidden Mersenne prime. I may update the document to show this, but I probably won't have the time. However, I do still believe the arguments used to support my conjecture. Also, this document is a really good (or at least, I like to think so) semi-comprehensive resource on Mersenne primes. (If you need to cite stuff from it in a paper, I really suggest that you go back to my secondary and primary sources; only cite things from my paper directly if you need to refer to my conjecture specifically.) The paper has been slightly altered from the version that was submitted to IB. I received an A for it in my IB Diploma.

The paper itself, in zipped PDF format:
mersenne.zip (266 KB) : Mersenne Primes: Development through History, Ongoing Work, and a New Conjecture


https://nuwen.net/paper.html (updated a long time ago)
Stephan T. Lavavej
Home: stl@nuwen.net
Work: stl@microsoft.com
This is my personal website. I work for Microsoft, but I don't speak for them.