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Ben McKay
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Infinitely many primes of the form 2^n+c$2^n+c$ as n$n$ varies?

typo
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Kevin Buzzard
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At the time of writing, question 5191 is closed with the accusation of homework. But I don't have a clue about what is going on in that question (other than part 3) [Edit: Anton's comments at 5191 clarify at least some of the things going on and are well worth reading] [Edit: FC's excellent answers shows that my lack of clueness is merely due to ignorance on my own part] so I'll ask a related one.

My impression is that it's generally believed that there are infinitely many Mersenne primes, that is, primes of the form $2^n-1$. My impression is also that it's suspected that there are only finitely many Fermat primes, that is, primes of the form $2^n+1$ (a heuristic argument is on the wikipedia page for Fermat primes). [EDIT: on the Wikipedia page there is also a heuristic argument that there are infinitely many Fermat primes!]

So I'm going to basically re-ask some parts of Q5191, because I don't know how to ask that a question be re-opened in any other way, plus some generalisations.

  1. For which odd integers $c$ is it generally conjectured that there are infinitely many primes of the form $2^n+c$? For which $c$ is it generally conjectured that there are only finitely many? For which $c$ don't we have a clue what to conjecture? [Edit: FC has shown us that there will be loads of $c$'s for which $2^n+c$ is (provably) prime only finitely often. Do we still only have one $c$ (namely $c=-1$) for which it's generally believed that $2^n+c$ is prime infinitely often?]

  2. Are there any odd $c$ for which it is a sensible conjecture that there are infinitely many $n$ such that $2^n+c$ and $2^{n+1}+c$ are simultaneously prime? Same question for "finitely many $n$".

  3. Are there any pairs $c,d$ of odd integers for which it's a sensible conjecture that $2^n+c$ and $2^n+d$ are simultaneously prime infinitely often? Same for "finitely often".

At the time of writing, question 5191 is closed with the accusation of homework. But I don't have a clue about what is going on in that question (other than part 3) [Edit: Anton's comments at 5191 clarify at least some of the things going on and are well worth reading] so I'll ask a related one.

My impression is that it's generally believed that there are infinitely many Mersenne primes, that is, primes of the form $2^n-1$. My impression is also that it's suspected that there are only finitely many Fermat primes, that is, primes of the form $2^n+1$ (a heuristic argument is on the wikipedia page for Fermat primes). [EDIT: on the Wikipedia page there is also a heuristic argument that there are infinitely many Fermat primes!]

So I'm going to basically re-ask some parts of Q5191, because I don't know how to ask that a question be re-opened in any other way, plus some generalisations.

  1. For which odd integers $c$ is it generally conjectured that there are infinitely many primes of the form $2^n+c$? For which $c$ is it generally conjectured that there are only finitely many? For which $c$ don't we have a clue what to conjecture?

  2. Are there any odd $c$ for which it is a sensible conjecture that there are infinitely many $n$ such that $2^n+c$ and $2^{n+1}+c$ are simultaneously prime? Same question for "finitely many $n$".

  3. Are there any pairs $c,d$ of odd integers for which it's a sensible conjecture that $2^n+c$ and $2^n+d$ are simultaneously prime infinitely often? Same for "finitely often".

At the time of writing, question 5191 is closed with the accusation of homework. But I don't have a clue about what is going on in that question (other than part 3) [Edit: Anton's comments at 5191 clarify at least some of the things going on and are well worth reading] [Edit: FC's excellent answers shows that my lack of clueness is merely due to ignorance on my own part] so I'll ask a related one.

My impression is that it's generally believed that there are infinitely many Mersenne primes, that is, primes of the form $2^n-1$. My impression is also that it's suspected that there are only finitely many Fermat primes, that is, primes of the form $2^n+1$ (a heuristic argument is on the wikipedia page for Fermat primes). [EDIT: on the Wikipedia page there is also a heuristic argument that there are infinitely many Fermat primes!]

So I'm going to basically re-ask some parts of Q5191, because I don't know how to ask that a question be re-opened in any other way, plus some generalisations.

  1. For which odd integers $c$ is it generally conjectured that there are infinitely many primes of the form $2^n+c$? For which $c$ is it generally conjectured that there are only finitely many? For which $c$ don't we have a clue what to conjecture? [Edit: FC has shown us that there will be loads of $c$'s for which $2^n+c$ is (provably) prime only finitely often. Do we still only have one $c$ (namely $c=-1$) for which it's generally believed that $2^n+c$ is prime infinitely often?]

  2. Are there any odd $c$ for which it is a sensible conjecture that there are infinitely many $n$ such that $2^n+c$ and $2^{n+1}+c$ are simultaneously prime? Same question for "finitely many $n$".

  3. Are there any pairs $c,d$ of odd integers for which it's a sensible conjecture that $2^n+c$ and $2^n+d$ are simultaneously prime infinitely often? Same for "finitely often".

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Anton Geraschenko
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Added comment that it was worth reading what Anton says at 5191.
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Kevin Buzzard
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added comment about plausibility of infinitely many Fermat primes
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Kevin Buzzard
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Kevin Buzzard
  • 41.4k
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