Hi all!
The 38th Mersenne prime was *probably* discovered today. The exponent
is in the 6,000,000s (the prime is in the neighborhood of 2,000,000 digits).
The discoverer is a member of the top 200 contributors according to
http://www.mersenne.org/top.htm
As was agreed after the last prime was discovered, I'm announcing
the news to this mailing list immediately. When the prime is properly
verified and published, then I'll announce the exact exponent. This process
was agreed to as a compromise in keeping everyone informed, yet minimizing
any chance of the news prematurely leaking to the press.
And now the bad news. Since the EFF award requires publication
of the result in a refereed academic journal, the publication process
will take longer than normal. It could be a few months.
Tentative congratulations to all GIMPS members for their contribution
in this exciting discovery!!
Oh yeah, and special thanks to Scott Kurowski and entropia.com.
We wouldn't have found this prime without his tireless Primenet server work.
Now let's go find the 39th!
Best regards,
George
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