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Today I need your help to know if the proof I have provided below is correct or not. I want to prove that there is no prime of the form 217a+1 where aN.

Now, first of all, I tried to get some initial information about a and used MAPLE 14. I came to know that if a=47 then the above number is indeed prime but otherwise for any aN{47} with a3000 so far, computationally it has been shown that 217a+1 is not prime.

So we can take the advantage of it and conjecture: ** No number of the form 217a+1 is prime if a3000**

Proof:

Note that for a3000, we have

217a+1(1)(1)a+1[3](1)a+1+1[3]0[3]

provided a0[2].

Next we check the case when a is odd. Assume that a=2a1+1,a1N. (when a=1 then 2171+1=35=57 hence not prime. So we see for a=3,5,7 etc i.e. a=2a1+1 form.)

This time we see that

217a+1=2172a1+1+12(2)2a1+1+1[5]2(22)a12+1[5](1)(1)a1+1[5](1)a1+1+1[5]0[5]
provided a1+1 is odd viz a1 is even.

So next we have to check what happens if we let a1=2a21 form. In this case the number will become as

2172a11+1=2174a23+1.

And then taking modulo 5, we obtain as

2174a23+12(2)4a23+1[5]2(2)4a223+1[5]2(1)(23)1+1[5]2(3)1+1[5]22+1[5]0[5]

Thus we conclude that 217a+1 when a3000, is composite number.

Please tell if I have made any mistake on proving this.

Thanking to all of you in advance.

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1 Answer 1

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No, your second computation and third computation rule out exactly the same candidates, all the a congruent to 1 mod 4. You have never adressed the case where a3(mod4)

There is absolutely no hope of doing a similar computation ruling out all the a congruent to 3 mod 4, because the case a=47 gives out a prime (notice how 473(mod4)).

This means that a proof only using congruences would have to work modulo some M47 and would have to show that a47(modM)f(a)0(modf(47)) (this is the only way to rule out the case 47 mod M). Seeing how f(47) is huge, M also has to be huge (it has to be a multiple of the order of 17 modulo f(47) ; nothing like your 4), and then you have to find primes to rule out the other M1 cases (which would be nothing short of a miracle)

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