A double Mersenne number is a number of the form
where is a Mersenne number. The first few double Mersenne numbers are 1, 7, 127, 32767, 2147483647, 9223372036854775807, ... (OEIS A077585).
A double Mersenne number that is prime is called a double Mersenne prime. Since a Mersenne prime can be prime only for prime , a double Mersenne prime can be prime only for prime , i.e., a Mersenne prime. Double Mersenne numbers are prime for , 3, 5, 7, corresponding to the sequence 7, 127, 2147483647, 170141183460469231731687303715884105727, ... (OEIS A077586).
The next four , , , and have known factors summarized in the following table. The status of all other double Mersenne numbers is unknown, with being the smallest unresolved case. Since this number has 694127911065419642 digits, it is much too large for the usual Lucas-Lehmer test to be practical. The only possible method of determining the status of this number is therefore attempting to find small divisors (or discovery of an efficient primality test for this type of number). T. Forbes has organized a distributed search, but thus no factors have been found although about 80% of the trial divisors up to have been checked. Edgington maintains a list of known factorizations of double Mersenne numbers.
factors | reference | |
13 | 338193759479, C2455 | Wilfrid Keller (1976) |
17 | 231733529 | Raphael Robinson (1957) |
19 | 62914441 | Raphael Robinson (1957) |
31 | 295257526626031 | Guy Haworth (1983, 1987) |
87054709261955177 | Keller (1994) | |
242557615644693265201 | Keiser and Forbes (1999) | |
178021379228511215367151 | Mayer (2005) |