Luke Durant, a 36-year-old from San Jose, California, has made a groundbreaking discovery in the realm of mathematics by identifying the world’s largest known prime number, officially named M136279841, which contains an astounding 41,024,320 digits.
After dedicating nearly a year and investing significant resources, Durant’s achievement marks the first major prime discovery in almost six years, according to CNN. A prime number is defined as a whole number that can only be divided by 1 or itself, including examples such as 2, 3, 5, and 7.
Durant’s finding falls under the category of Mersenne primes, a rare class of primes named after the French monk Marin Mersenne, who studied these numbers over 350 years ago. Mersenne primes must be expressed in the form of ‘2ᵖ-1’, where ‘p’ is also a prime number.
While large prime numbers serve various applications, especially in internet security, Mersenne primes hold additional significance. Dr. Kevin Buzzard, a professor of pure mathematics at Imperial College, London, emphasized the historical importance of prime discoveries, noting their reflection of advancements in computational capabilities.
The announcement of Durant’s research came on October 21 from the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS), a community-driven initiative that allows non-experts to contribute to the search for the largest known primes. Durant praised the GIMPS community for its impressive system and technology designed for this purpose.
To pursue this project, Durant became acquainted with GIMPS software and learned to utilize cloud computing resources, effectively assembling a network of global systems to create a powerful virtual supercomputer. Volunteers from various cities worldwide run the project’s software on their personal computers, collectively contributing to the search for new prime numbers.
Durant’s motivation stemmed from his passion for developing advanced computing systems and exploring the boundaries of physics. He expressed his desire to “push the boundaries of the known universe in whatever small way I was able,” highlighting the significance of these massive prime numbers as some of the largest “unique pieces of information” in existence.