A084740 Least k such that (n^k-1)/(n-1) is prime, or 0 if no such prime exists.

2, 3, 2, 3, 2, 5, 3, 0, 2, 17, 2, 5, 3, 3, 2, 3, 2, 19, 3, 3, 2, 5, 3, 0, 7, 3, 2, 5, 2, 7, 0, 3, 13, 313, 2, 13, 3, 349, 2, 3, 2, 5, 5, 19, 2, 127, 19, 0, 3, 4229, 2, 11, 3, 17, 7, 3, 2, 3, 2, 7, 3, 5, 0, 19, 2, 19, 5, 3, 2, 3, 2, 5, 5, 3, 41, 3, 2, 5, 3, 0, 2, 5, 17, 5, 11, 7, 2, 3, 3, 4421, 439, 7, 5, 7, 2, 17, 13, 3, 2, 3, 2, 19, 97, 3, 2, 17, 2, 17, 3, 3, 2, 23, 29, 7, 59

Offset: 2

Author

Amarnath Murthy and Meenakshi Srikanth (menakan_s(AT)yahoo.com), Jun 15 2003

Keywords

• nonn

Comments

When (n^k-1)/(n-1) is prime, k must be prime. As mentioned by Dubner, when n is a perfect power, then (n^k-1)/(n-1) will usually be composite for all k, which is the case for n = 9, 25, 32, 49, 64, 81, 121, 125, 144, 169, 216, 225, 243, 289, 324, 343, ... - T. D. Noe, Jan 30 2004

a(152) > prime(1100) or 0. - Derek Orr, Nov 29 2014

a(n)=2 if and only if n=p-1, where p is an odd prime; that is, n belongs to A006093, except 2. - Thomas Ordowski, Sep 19 2015

Probably a(152) = 270217 since (152^270217-1)/(152-1) has been shown to be probably prime. - Michael Stocker, Jan 24 2019

Examples

			a(7) = 5 as (7^5 - 1 )/(7 - 1) = 2801 = 1 + 7 + 7^2 + 7^3 + 7^4 is a prime but no smaller partial sum yields a prime.
		

Links

• Eric Chen, Table of known a(n) up to a(360) [with a(316) corrected by Jon E. Schoenfield]
• H. Dubner, Generalized repunit primes, Math. Comp., 61 (1993), 927-930.
• Andy Steward, Titanic Prime Generalized Repunits
• Eric Weisstein's World of Mathematics, Repunit
• Robert G. Wilson v, Letter to N. J. A. Sloane, circa 1991.
• Robert G. Wilson v, Table of known a(n) from n = 2 to 1000.

Crossrefs

Cf. A065507, A065854, A084738, A084742, A096059, A126659, A128164, A246005.

Cf. A066180, A085398, A103795, A123487, A123627.

Programs

PARI

a(n) = {l=List([9, 25, 32, 49, 64, 81, 121, 125, 144, 169, 216, 225, 243, 289, 324, 343]); for(q=1, #l, if(n==l[q], return(0))); k=1; while(k, s=(n^prime(k)-1)/(n-1); if(ispseudoprime(s), return(prime(k))); k++)}
n=2; while(n<361, print1(a(n), ", "); n++) \\ Derek Orr, Jul 13 2014

Extensions

More terms from T. D. Noe, Jan 23 2004