Fermat numbers F0 — F32
Firstly, this collation of information, and in particular its organisation, owes an obvious, substantial debt of gratitude to Wilfrid Keller’s Fermat number factoring status page for so easily making the data on the known Fermat numbers not merely available, but coherent and logical to grasp and assimilate.
Secondly, a word or three on the comparative, smaller. The Fermat primes (up to F4) might be regarded as small, but generally Fermat numbers are anything but small. Fermat numbers grow so quickly that beyond about F33, which is currently being tested with Mlucas 21 using Pollard’s p–1 algorithm, the only tool currently available is essentially just trial division; the known k·2n+1 form of Fermat divisors allows confidence in searching for them. Other advanced methods of factoring that have proved invaluable on the smaller Fermat numbers, or primality tests such as Pépin’s theorem, become more difficult and probably impossible with current hardware and software somewhere beyond this point.
Correspondingly we have somewhat more information on the Fermat numbers that are within reach, so this page confines itself to re-organising the data on these. Several obvious points of difference from Keller’s page may be noticed, such as the colour coding to give a visual indicator to the character of the various Fermat numbers when gathering them together into a continuous list of each type: their standard notation factorisation, and k, n values of factors.
Citations and direct links to original sources are also provided where possible, and in providing dates, italics denote a ‘terminus ante quem’; if a manuscript, letter, or lecture were delivered on a given day, then the discovery contained within must naturally have occurred at a prior date (and most papers helpfully indicate both initial received dates as well as dates of revision). These italics have additional information available when the cursor hovers above them.
The section below on compositeness proofs of Fermat numbers and cofactors is a very short summary of a larger historical study of the subject available here.
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52,347
7
division
262,814,145,745
8
of k12 cofactor: H. Le Lasseur, 1880)
11,141,971,095,088,142,685
9
fraction
k59
11
of k59 cofactor: H. C. Williams)
k96
11
team (Primality: A. M. Odłyżko)
k96 = 362,128,936,829,849,024,182,024,
971,631,805,407,255,830,459,520,272,960,891,514,314,523,640,507,570,656,742,232,821,636,569,307
k248 = 15,922,836,231,138,695,035,093,355,565,980,
212,884,107,486,675,001,451,682,970,617,160,257,863,311,947,248,971,452,664,548,043,591,906,237,
644,522,563,833,477,152,239,872,181,860,196,421,948,439,690,685,317,315,553,051,258,143,326,480,
945,577,516,888,976,026,564,843,006,895,573,500,498,133,825,643,594,092,555,886,322,403,200,003
172,243,537,764,108,788,193,250,592,967,656,046,192,485,007,078,101,912,652,776,662,834,559,689,
734,635,521,223,667,093,019,353,364,100,169,585,433,799,507,320,937,371,688,159,076,970,887,037,
493,581,569,352,118,776,521,064,958,422,163,933,812,649,044,026,502,558,555,356,775,560,067,461,
648,993,426,750,049,061,580,191,794,744,396,103,493,131,476,781,686,200,989,377,719,638,682,976,
424,873,973,574,085,951,980,316,371,376,859,104,992,795,318,729,984,801,869,785,145,588,809,492,
038,969,317,284,320,651,500,418,425,949,345,494,944,448,110,057,412,733,268,967,446,592,534,704,
415,768,023,768,439,849,177,511,907,048,426,136,846,561,848,711,377,379,319,145,718,177,075,053
= 22 · 32 · 5 · 149 · 163 · 197 · 7,187 · 18,311 · 123,677 · 226,133 · 314,263 · 4,677,583
= 24 · 32 · 7 · 17 · 293 · 349 · 8,821 · 23,753 · 65,123 · 2,413,097 · 9,027,881 · 23,759,413 · 45,947,380,867
100,000
500,000
3,542,000
stage 2 un-needed
4,009,189
8,020,345
317,976,969,488,002,049,294,329,728 = 27 · 3 · 127 · 3,083 · 3,539 · 9,649 · 18,239 · 3,395,653
319,546,020,820,551,567,984,515,352 = 23 · 3 · 17 · 23 · 41 · 113 · 271 · 3,037 · 10,687 · 12,251 · 68,209
= 22 · 3 · 53 · 107 · 3,433 · 37,087 · 110,323 · 128,321 · 1,738,307 · 9,338,881 · 74,968,979 · 783,277,631
= 25 · 3 · 4,889 · 5,701 · 9,883 · 11,777 · 5,909,317 · 91,704,181
200,000
10,000,000
125,546,653
188,981,757,975,004,093,943,814,852 = 22 · 32 · 72 · 109 · 761 · 2,053 · 20,297 · 101,483 · 305,419
= 22 · 3 · 541 · 2,713 · 5,153 · 23,773 · 152,363 · 239,387 · 19,359,383 · 22,095,751 · 230,254,627
= 25 · 3 · 11 · 181 · 263 · 4,217 · 38,867 · 244,451 · 1,779,623 · 10,487,459
= 23 · 3 · 5 · 11 · 23 · 193 · 4,451 · 862,231 · 886,069 · 898,769 · 3,610,351
Chronology of proving composite nature of Fermat numbers (known factors = 0)
or cofactors (prime factors ≥ 1)
m | Year | known/prime factors | Digits | Earliest prover(s) | Method(s) | Status | Citation(s) | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
5 6 | 1877 | 2 0 (2) | 10 20 | } | F. É. A. Lucas | Pell sequence | Clausen’s F6 factoring was unpublished; subsequently refactored |
[L1877a, L1877b] | |||||||
7 | 1905 | 0 | 39 | J. C. Morehead; A. E. Western | Pépin | subsequently factored | [M1905, W1905] | ||||||||
8 | 1909 | 0 | 78 | J. C. Morehead & A. E. Western | Pépin | subsequently factored | [MW1909] | ||||||||
9 | 1967 | 1 | 148 | J. Brillhart | subsequently factored | [HB1975] | |||||||||
10 | 1952 | 0 | 309 | R. M. Robinson | Pépin | subsequently factored | [R1954] | ||||||||
1967 | 2 | 291 | J. Brillhart | subsequently factored | [HB1975] | ||||||||||
11 | 1979 | 2 | 606 | S. S. Wagstaff | subsequently factored | [G1980] | |||||||||
1988 | 3 | 584 | R. P. Brent | subsequently factored | [B1989, B1996] | ||||||||||
12 | 1979 | 4 | 1,202 | S. S. Wagstaff | new factor discovered | [G1980] | |||||||||
1986 | 5 | 1,187 | R. J. Baillie | new factor discovered | [W1987] | ||||||||||
2010 | 6 | 1,133 | M. Vang; S. Batalov; A. Schindel | yet to be factored | [V2010] | ||||||||||
13 | 1960 | 0 | 2,467 | G. A. Paxson | Pépin | new factor discovered | [P1961] | ||||||||
1979 | 1 | 2,454 | S. S. Wagstaff | new factor discovered | [G1980] | ||||||||||
1991 | 2 | 2,436 | A. K. Lenstra, W. Keller | new factor discovered | |||||||||||
1991 | 3 | 2,417 | R. E. Crandall | new factor discovered | |||||||||||
1995 | 4 | 2,391 | R. P. Brent | yet to be factored | [BCDH2000] | ||||||||||
14 | 1961 | 0 | 4,933 | A. Hurwitz & J. L. Selfridge | Pépin | new factor discovered | [SH1964] | ||||||||
2010 | 1 | 4,880 | W. B. Lipp; R. D. Silverman; T. Rajala; P. Moore | Various inc. Suyama | yet to be factored | [R2010] | |||||||||
15 | 1984 | 1 | 9,856 | H. Suyama | Suyama | new factor discovered | [S1984] | ||||||||
1987 | 2 | 9,840 | H. Suyama; R. J. Baillie | Suyama | new factor discovered | [S1987, W1987] | |||||||||
1997 | 3 | 9,808 | R. P. Brent & R. E. Crandall | yet to be factored | [BCDH2000] | ||||||||||
16 | 1987 | 1 | 19,720 | R. J. Baillie | new factor discovered | [W1987] | |||||||||
1996 | 2 | 19,694 | R. P. Brent & R. E. Crandall | yet to be factored | [BCDH2000] | ||||||||||
17 | 1987 | 1 | 39,444 | R. J. Baillie | new factor discovered | ||||||||||
2011 | 2 | 39,395 | D. Chia; T. Sorbera | yet to be factored | [B2011] | ||||||||||
18 | 1990 | 1 | 78,907 | D. V. & G. V. Chudnovsky | yet to be factored | [W1990] | |||||||||
1999 | 2 | 78,884 | R. E. Crandall | yet to be factored | |||||||||||
19 | 1993 | 2 | 157,804 | R. E. Crandall, J. Doenias, C. Norrie & J. Young | Suyama | new factor discovered | [CDNY1995] | ||||||||
2009 | 3 | 157,770 | J. R. King; A. Kruppa; G. Childers | yet to be factored | [W2009] | ||||||||||
20 | 1987 | 0 | 315,653 | J. Young & D. A. Buell | Pépin | no factors known | [YB1988] | ||||||||
21 | 1993 | 1 | 631,294 | R. E. Crandall, J. Doenias, C. Norrie & J. Young | Suyama | yet to be factored | [CDNY1995] | ||||||||
22 | 1993 | 0 | 1,262,612 | { | R. E. Crandall, J. Doenias, C. Norrie & J. Young; V. Trevisan & J. B. Carvalho | Pépin | new factor discovered | [CDNY1995, TC1995] | |||||||
2010 | 1 | 1,262,577 | D. Domanov; S. Yamada | Suyama | yet to be factored | [D2010, Y2010] | |||||||||
23 | 2000 | 1 | 2,525,215 | R. E. Crandall, E. W. Mayer & J. S. Papadopoulos | Suyama | yet to be factored | [CMP2003] | ||||||||
24 | 1999 | 0 | 5,050,446 | R. E. Crandall, E. W. Mayer & J. S. Papadopoulos | Pépin | no factors known | [CMP2003] | ||||||||
25 | 2009 | 3 | 10,100,842 | S. Yamada; A. T. Höglund | Euler; Fermat-PRP | yet to be factored | [H2009a, Y2009] | ||||||||
26 | 2009 | 1 | 20,201,768 | A. T. Höglund | Fermat-PRP | yet to be factored | [H2009b] | ||||||||
27 | 2010 | 2 | 40,403,531 | A. T. Höglund | Fermat-PRP | yet to be factored | [H2010] | ||||||||
28 | 2022 | 1 | 80,807,103 | E. W. Mayer | Suyama | yet to be factored | [M2022] | ||||||||
29 | 2022 | 1 | 161,614,233 | E. W. Mayer | Suyama | yet to be factored | [M2022] | ||||||||
30 | 2022 | 2 | 323,228,467 | E. W. Mayer | Suyama | yet to be factored | [M2022] |
References, sorted by primary author
[B2011] | D. Bessell, New factor for F17, mersenneforum.org thread 10835 post 1 (2011); cofactor compositeness tests appear in replies at post 6 (D. Chia) and post 9 (T. Sorbera) | |
[B1964] | K.-R. Biermann, Thomas Clausen, Mathematiker und Astronom, J. für die reine und angewandte Mathematik 216 (1964), 159–198. DOI 10.1515/crll.1964.216.159 (see page 185, relating a letter by Clausen to C. F. Gauss, dated 1 January 1855) | |
[B1878] | V. Bouniakowsky, Nouveau cas de divisibilité des nombres de la forme 22m+1, trouvé par le révérend père J. Pervouchine, Bulletins de l’Académie des sciences de Saint-Pétersbourg 24 (1878), 559. | |
[B1879] | V. Bouniakowsky, Encore un nouveau cas de divisibilité des nombres de la forme 22m+1, Bulletins de l’Académie des sciences de Saint-Pétersbourg 25 (1879), 63–64 | |
[B1989] | R. P. Brent, Factorization of the eleventh Fermat number (preliminary report), Amer. Math. Soc. Abstracts 10 (1989), 89T-11-73 | |
[B1996] | R. P. Brent, Factorization of the tenth and eleventh Fermat numbers, Report TR-CS-96-02, Computer Sciences Laboratory, Australian National Univ., Canberra, Feb. 1996, 25 pp. | |
[B1999] | R. P. Brent, Factorization of the tenth Fermat number, Math. Comp. 68 (1999), 429–451. MR 1489968, DOI 10.1090/S0025-5718-99-00992-8 | |
[BCDH2000] | R. P. Brent, R. E. Crandall, K. Dilcher, C. van Halewyn, Three new factors of Fermat numbers, Math. Comp. 69 (2000), 1297–1304. MR 1697645, DOI 10.1090/S0025-5718-00-01207-2 | |
[BP1981] | R. P. Brent, J. M. Pollard, Factorization of the eighth Fermat number, Math. Comp. 36 (1981), 627–630. MR 606520, DOI 10.1090/S0025-5718-1981-0606520-5 | |
[B1963] | J. Brillhart, Some miscellaneous factorizations, Math. Comp. 17 (1963), 447–450. DOI 10.1090/S0025-5718-63-99176-2 | |
[CDNY1995] | R. E. Crandall, J. Doenias, C. Norrie, J. Young, The twenty-second Fermat number is composite, Math. Comp. 64 (1995), 863–868. MR 1277765, DOI 10.1090/S0025-5718-1995-1277765-9 | |
[CMP2003] | R. E. Crandall, E. W. Mayer, J. S. Papadopoulos, The twenty-fourth Fermat number is composite, Math. Comp. 72 (2003), 1555–1572. MR 1972753, DOI 10.1090/S0025-5718-02-01479-5 | |
[CW1904] | A. J. C. Cunningham, A. E. Western, On Fermat’s numbers, Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. (2) 1 (1904), 175. DOI 10.1112/plms/s2-1.1.175 | |
[D2010] | D. Domanov, F22 factored, mersenneforum.org thread 9605; announcement, post 1; cofactor compositeness test, post 12 (2010) | |
[E1738] | L. Euler, Observationes de theoremate quodam Fermatiano, aliisque ad numeros primos spectantibus, Commentarii academiae scientiarum Petropolitanae 6 (1738), 103–107; translated from Latin by D. Zhao (2006), J. Bell (2008) | |
[F1991] | C. R. Fletcher, A reconstruction of the Frenicle–Fermat correspondence of 1640, Historia Mathematica 18 (1991), 344–351 | |
[G1980] | G. B. Gostin, A factor of F17, Math. Comp. 35 (1980), 975–976. MR 572869, DOI 10.1090/S0025-5718-1980-0572869-7 | |
[G1995] | G. B. Gostin, New factors of Fermat numbers, Math. Comp. 64 (1995), 393–395. MR 1265015, DOI 10.1090/S0025-5718-1995-1265015-9 | |
[GM1982] | G. B. Gostin, P. B. McLaughlin, Jr., Six new factors of Fermat numbers, Math. Comp. 38 (1982), 645–649. MR 645680, DOI 10.1090/S0025-5718-1982-0645680-8 | |
[HB1975] | J. C. Hallyburton, Jr., J. Brillhart, Two new factors of Fermat numbers, Math. Comp. 29 (1975), 109–112. MR 369225, DOI 10.1090/S0025-5718-1975-0369225-1. Corrigenda ibid. 30 (1976), 198. | |
[H2009/10] | A. T. Höglund, in mersenneforum.org thread 8842; compositeness test of c10,100,842 | F25 cofactor, post 51 (2009); compositeness test of c20,201,768 | F26 cofactor, post 62 (2009); compositeness test of c40,403,531 | F27 cofactor, post 64 (2010) | |
[K1952] | M. B. Kraïtchik, On the factorization of 2n ± 1, Scripta Math. 18 (1952), 39–52. | |
[L1880] | F. Landry, Sur la décomposition du nombre 264 + 1, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris 91 (1880), 138 (see also [W1993]) | |
[LLMP1993] | A. K. Lenstra, H. W. Lenstra, Jr., M. S. Manasse, J. M. Pollard, The factorization of the ninth Fermat number, Math. Comp. 61 (1993), 319–349. MR 1182953, DOI 10.1090/S0025-5718-1993-1182953-4, Addendum ibid. 64 (1995), 1357 | |
[L1877a] | F. É. A. Lucas, Sur la division de la circonférence en parties égales, Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l’Académie des Sciences de Paris 85 (1877), 136–139 | |
[L1877b] | F. É. A. Lucas, Considérations nouvelles sur la théorie des nombres premiers et sur la division géométrique de la circonférence en parties égales, Association française pour l’avancement des sciences, Comptes-rendus de la 6e session, Le Havre (1877), 159–167 | |
[M2022] | E. W. Mayer, Pépin tests of Fermat numbers beyond F24, mersenneforum.org thread 13610 (2013–22); results of Suyama tests for F25 to F30, “F25–F30 cofactor status, Part 2”, post 83 (2022) | |
[M1905] | J. C. Morehead, Note on Fermat’s numbers, Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 11 (1905), 543–545. MR 1558255, DOI 10.1090/S0002-9904-1905-01255-6 | |
[MW1909] | J. C. Morehead, A. E. Western, Note on Fermat’s numbers, Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 16 (1909), 1–6. MR 1558828, DOI 10.1090/S0002-9904-1909-01841-5 | |
[MB1971] | M. A. Morrison, J. Brillhart, The factorization of F7, Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 77 (1971), 264. MR 268113 10.1090/S0002-9904-1971-12711-8 | |
[MB1975] | M. A. Morrison, J. Brillhart, A method of factoring and the factorization of F7, Math. Comp. 29 (1975), 183–205. MR 371800, DOI 10.1090/S0025-5718-1975-0371800-5 | |
[P1961] | G. A. Paxson, The compositeness of the thirteenth Fermat number, Math. Comp. 15 (1961), 420. MR 124264, DOI 10.1090/S0025-5718-1961-0124264-0 | |
[P1877] | T. Pépin, Sur la formule 22n + 1, Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l’Académie des Sciences de Paris 85 (1877), 329–331 | |
[R2010] | T. Rajala, GIMPS’ second Fermat factor, mersenneforum.org thread 9485, posts 1, 13, 18, and 19 (2010); cofactor compositeness tests, post 5 (W. B. Lipp); post 12 (R. D. Silverman); post 24 (P. Moore) | |
[R1963] | H. I. Riesel, A factor of the Fermat number F19, Math. Comp. 17 (1963), 458. DOI 10.1090/S0025-5718-63-99175-0 | |
[R1954] | R. M. Robinson, Mersenne and Fermat numbers, Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 5 (1954), 842–846. MR 64787, DOI 10.1090/S0002-9939-1954-0064787-4 | |
[S1953] | J. L. Selfridge, Factors of Fermat numbers, Math. Tables Aids Comput. 7 (1953), 274–275. DOI 10.1090/S0025-5718-53-99350-8 | |
[SH1964] | J. L. Selfridge, A. Hurwitz, Fermat numbers and Mersenne numbers, Math. Comp. 18 (1964), 146–148. MR 159775, DOI 10.1090/S0025-5718-1964-0159775-8 | |
[S1984] | H. Suyama, The cofactor of F15 is composite, Abstracts Amer. Math. Soc. 5 (1984), 271–272 | |
[S1987] | H. Suyama, The new cofactor of F15 is still composite, written communication (23 October 1987) | |
[TC1995] | V. Trevisan, J. B. Carvalho, The composite character of the twenty-second Fermat number, J. Supercomputing 9 (1995), 179–182. DOI 10.1007/BF01245403 | |
[V2010] | M. Vang, F12 has a factor, mersenneforum.org thread 9610, posts 1 and 9 (2010); compositeness tests, post 2 (S. Batalov) and post 4 (A. Schindel) | |
[W1987] | S. S. Wagstaff, Jr., Update #5 to Factorizations of bn ± 1 (1987), 6 pp. | |
[W1990] | S. S. Wagstaff, Jr., Cover letter for Page 61 (1 October 1990) | |
[W1905] | A. E. Western, Note on Fermat’s numbers and the converse of Fermat’s theorem, Proc. Lond. Math. Soc (2) 3 (1905), xxi–xxii. DOI 10.1112/plms/s2-3.1.1-v | |
[W1993] | H. C. Williams, How was F6 factored? Math. Comp. 61 (1993), 463–474. MR 1182248, DOI 10.1090/S0025-5718-1993-1182248-9 | |
[W2009] | G. F. Woltman, GIMPS’ first Fermat factor, mersenneforum.org thread 8842, post 1 (2009), announcement of new factor of F19; with replies by: J. R. King, compositeness test of c157,770 | F19 cofactor, post 5 (2009); A. Kruppa, compositeness test of F19 cofactor, post 6 (2009); ‘E. P.’, compositeness test of F19 cofactor, post 9 (2009); G. Childers, compositeness test of F19 cofactor, post 14 (2009) | |
[W1964] | C. P. Wrathall, New factors of Fermat numbers, Math. Comp. 18 (1964), 324–325. MR 163868, DOI 10.1090/S0025-5718-1964-0163868-9 | |
[Y2009/10] | S. Yamada, in mersenneforum.org thread 8842; Fermat–Euler test of c10,100,842 | F25 cofactor, post 40 (2009); Suyama test of c1,262,577 | F22 cofactor, post 70 (2010) | |
[YB1988] | J. Young, D. A. Buell, The twentieth Fermat number is composite, Math. Comp. 50 (1988), 261–263. MR 917833, DOI 10.1090/S0025-5718-1988-0917833-8 |