Fermat Pseudoprime - Definition

Definition

Fermat's little theorem states that if p is prime and a is coprime to p, then ap−1 − 1 is divisible by p. If a composite integer x is coprime to an integer a > 1 and x divides ax−1 − 1, then x is called a Fermat pseudoprime to base a. In other words, a composite integer is a Fermat pseudoprime to base a if it successfully passes Fermat primality test for the base a.

The smallest base-2 Fermat pseudoprime is 341. It is not a prime, since it equals 11·31, but it satisfies Fermat's little theorem: 2340 ≡ 1 (mod 341) and thus passes Fermat primality test for the base 2.

Pseudoprimes to base 2 are sometimes called Poulet numbers, Sarrus numbers, or Fermatians (sequence A001567 in OEIS).

An integer x that is a Fermat pseudoprime for all values of a that are coprime to x is called a Carmichael number.

Read more about this topic:  Fermat Pseudoprime

Famous quotes containing the word definition:

    According to our social pyramid, all men who feel displaced racially, culturally, and/or because of economic hardships will turn on those whom they feel they can order and humiliate, usually women, children, and animals—just as they have been ordered and humiliated by those privileged few who are in power. However, this definition does not explain why there are privileged men who behave this way toward women.
    Ana Castillo (b. 1953)

    The physicians say, they are not materialists; but they are:MSpirit is matter reduced to an extreme thinness: O so thin!—But the definition of spiritual should be, that which is its own evidence. What notions do they attach to love! what to religion! One would not willingly pronounce these words in their hearing, and give them the occasion to profane them.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    One definition of man is “an intelligence served by organs.”
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)