PlanetMath (more info)
 Math for the people, by the people.
Encyclopedia | Requests | Forums | Docs | Wiki | Random | RSS  
Login
create new user
name:
pass:
forget your password?
Main Menu
Owner confidence rating: High Entry average rating: No information on entry rating
permutable prime (Definition)

Given the base $ b$ representation of a prime number $ p$ as $ d_k, \ldots , d_1$ with

$\displaystyle p = \sum_{i = 1}^k d_ib^{i - 1},$
if each possible permutation of the digits still represents a prime number in that base, then $ p$ is said to be a permutable prime. For example, in base 10, the prime 337 is a permutable prime since 373 and 733 are also prime. The known base 10 permutable primes are listed in A003459 of Sloane's OEIS.

If we define $ \pi_P(n)$ to count how many permutable primes there are below $ n$, it is obvious that $ \pi_P(b - 1) = \pi(b - 1)$, where $ \pi(n)$ is the standard prime counting function.

When $ 2 \vert b$, a search for permutable primes can safely exclude any primes whose base $ b$ representation includes digits that are individually even. In a trivial sense, all repunit primes are also permutable primes. This means that in binary, the only permutable primes are repunits (that is, the Mersenne primes). Richert proved in 1951 that in the range $ 991 < p < 10^{175}$ the only base 10 permutable primes are repunit primes; it is conjectured that this is also true above that range.

Bibliography

1
H. E. Richert, "On permutable primtall," Unsolved Norsk Matematiske Tiddskrift, 33 (1951), 50 - 54.



"permutable prime" is owned by PrimeFan. [ owner history (1) ]
(view preamble | get metadata)

View style:

Other names:  absolute prime
Log in to rate this entry.
(view current ratings)

Cross-references: range, Mersenne primes, repunits, binary, repunit primes, even, prime counting function, obvious, OEIS, represents, digits, permutation, prime number, representation, base
There is 1 reference to this entry.

This is version 2 of permutable prime, born on 2006-09-08, modified 2006-09-12.
Object id is 8328, canonical name is PermutablePrime.
Accessed 1242 times total.

Classification:
AMS MSC11A63 (Number theory :: Elementary number theory :: Radix representation; digital problems)

Pending Errata and Addenda
None.
Discussion
Style: Expand: Order:
forum policy
little something to chew on by Lando47 on 2006-09-09 17:55:21
In

Table[Length[Select[Prime[Range[168]], permutablePrimeQ[#, b] &]], {b, 2, 36}]

Out

{4, 4, 8, 9, 10, 20, 13, 22, 22, 46, 17, 46, 27, 31, 26, 37, 23, 64, 37, 55, \
33, 61, 33, 77, 48, 68, 44, 109, 34, 100, 59, 72, 72, 92, 49}

Prime pi 1000 is 168. So, from the bases Mathematica can handle natively, base 29 has the most permutable primes from among the first 168 primes. The definition of the Boolean function permutablePrimeQ "is left as an exercise for the Reader."
[ reply | up ]
Terms: absolute vs. permutable by PrimeFan on 2006-09-09 15:23:07
It could be argued that "absolute" is more valid since the earliest researchers used this term. Personally, I prefer "permutable" because it indicates that permutation is involved, while "absolute" would seem to indicate an absoluteness that transcends base, which in this case it clearly does not (suffice it to compare the permutables in binary and decimal).
[ reply | up ]

Interact
post | correct | update request | add derivation | add example | add (any)