Bell Number - Prime Bell Numbers

Prime Bell Numbers

The first few Bell numbers that are primes are:

2, 5, 877, 27644437, 35742549198872617291353508656626642567, 359334085968622831041960188598043661065388726959079837 (sequence A051131 in OEIS)

corresponding to the indices 2, 3, 7, 13, 42 and 55 (sequence A051130 in OEIS).

The next prime is B2841, which is approximately 9.30740105 × 106538. As of 2006, it is the largest known prime Bell number. Phil Carmody showed it was a probable prime in 2002. After 17 months of computation with Marcel Martin's ECPP program Primo, Ignacio Larrosa Cañestro proved it to be prime in 2004. He ruled out any other possible primes below B6000, later extended to B30447 by Eric Weisstein.

Read more about this topic:  Bell Number

Famous quotes containing the words prime, bell and/or numbers:

    Baltimore lay very near the immense protein factory of Chesapeake Bay, and out of the bay it ate divinely. I well recall the time when prime hard crabs of the channel species, blue in color, at least eight inches in length along the shell, and with snow-white meat almost as firm as soap, were hawked in Hollins Street of Summer mornings at ten cents a dozen.
    —H.L. (Henry Lewis)

    When a nation’s young men are conservative, its funeral bell is already rung.
    Henry Ward Beecher (1813–1887)

    Think of the earth as a living organism that is being attacked by billions of bacteria whose numbers double every forty years. Either the host dies, or the virus dies, or both die.
    Gore Vidal (b. 1925)