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What is known about primes of the form

$p=\frac{4^m+1}{5}$

where m is an odd positive integer? Is $13$ the only such prime?

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    Checked up through m=129; I found no primes other than m=3.2012-11-16

1 Answers 1

13

EDDDDIITTTT: note $ x^4 + 4 y^4 = (x^2 - 2 x y + 2 y^2) (x^2 + 2 x y + 2 y^2) $ which is what I noticed. Among other things, this is the statement that the fourth roots of $-4$ are $1+i, 1-i, -1+i, -1-i.$ The particular case where $y$ is a power of $2$ and $x=1$ is attributed to Aurifeuille, a name that refers to a person rather than a country. However, I maintain that it's a good name for a country. Well, Aurifeuillia is a good name for a country.

ORIGINAL: Yes.

Take odd $m=2n+1.$ Then $ p = \left( 1 + 4 \cdot (2^n)^4 \right)/5, $ $ p = (1 - 2^{n+1} + 2^{2n+1}) (1 + 2^{n+1} + 2^{2n+1}) / 5. $

For $n \geq 2$ both factors are larger than $5.$

Note that all prime factors $q$ of $p$ must satisfy $q \equiv 1 \pmod 4.$ Indeed, if $r$ is prime and $r \equiv 3 \pmod 4,$ and finally $x^2 + y^2 \equiv 0 \pmod r,$ then $x,y \equiv 0 \pmod r$ and $x^2 + y^2 \equiv 0 \pmod {r^2}.$ In our case we have this $y=1$ so no such $r$ can be a factor.

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    @WillJagy: The name seems to be "in honor of the French mathematician [Léon François] Antoine Aurifeuille (1822-1882)".2012-11-16