Williams number - Wikipedia

In number theory, a Williams number base b is a natural number of the form $(b-1)\cdot b^{n}-1$ for integers b ≥ 2 and n ≥ 1.^[1] The Williams numbers base 2 are exactly the Mersenne numbers.

A Williams prime is a Williams number that is prime. They were considered by Hugh C. Williams.^[2]

It is conjectured that for every b ≥ 2, there are infinitely many Williams primes for base b.

References

^ Williams primes
^ See Table 1 in the last page of the paper: Williams, H. C. (1981). "The primality of certain integers of the form 2 A rⁿ – 1". Acta Arith. 39: 7–17. doi:10.4064/aa-39-1-7-17.

External links

v t e Prime number classes
By formula	Fermat ( $2 2 n + 1$ ) Mersenne ( $2 p - 1$ ) Double Mersenne ( $2 2 p -1 - 1$ ) Wagstaff $(2 p + 1)/3$ Proth ( $k \cdot2 n + 1$ ) Factorial ( $n! \pm 1$ ) Primorial ( $p n # \pm 1$ ) Euclid ( $p n # + 1$ ) Pythagorean ( $4 n + 1$ ) Pierpont ( $2 m \cdot3 n + 1$ ) Quartan ( $x 4 + y 4$ ) Solinas ( $2 m \pm 2 n \pm 1$ ) Cullen ( $n \cdot2 n + 1$ ) Woodall ( $n \cdot2 n - 1$ ) Cuban ( $x 3 - y 3)/(x - y$ ) Leyland ( $x y + y x$ ) Thabit ( $3\cdot2 n - 1$ ) Williams ( $(b -1)\cdot b n - 1$ ) Mills ( $⌊ A 3 n ⌋$ )
By integer sequence	Fibonacci Lucas Pell Newman–Shanks–Williams Perrin
By property	Wieferich (pair) Wall–Sun–Sun Wolstenholme Wilson Lucky Fortunate Ramanujan Pillai Regular Strong Stern Supersingular (elliptic curve) Supersingular (moonshine theory) Good Super Higgs Highly cototient Unique
Base-dependent	Palindromic Emirp Repunit $(10 n - 1)/9$ Permutable Circular Truncatable Minimal Delicate Primeval Full reptend Unique Happy Self Smarandache–Wellin Strobogrammatic Dihedral Tetradic
Patterns	Twin ( $p, p + 2$ ) Bi-twin chain ( $n \pm 1, 2 n \pm 1, 4 n \pm 1, \dots$ ) Triplet ( $p, p + 2 or p + 4, p + 6$ ) Quadruplet ( $p, p + 2, p + 6, p + 8$ ) k-tuple Cousin ( $p, p + 4$ ) Sexy ( $p, p + 6$ ) Chen Sophie Germain/Safe ( $p, 2 p + 1$ ) Cunningham ( $p, 2 p \pm 1, 4 p \pm 3, 8 p \pm 7, ...$ ) Arithmetic progression ( $p + a\cdotn, n = 0, 1, 2, 3, ...$ ) Balanced ( $consecutive p - n, p, p + n$ )
By size	Mega (1,000,000+ digits) Largest known list
Complex numbers	Eisenstein prime Gaussian prime
Composite numbers	Pseudoprime Catalan Elliptic Euler Euler–Jacobi Fermat Frobenius Lucas Perrin Somer–Lucas Strong Carmichael number Almost prime Semiprime Sphenic number Interprime Pernicious
Related topics	Probable prime Industrial-grade prime Illegal prime Formula for primes Prime gap
First 60 primes	2 3 5 7 11 13 17 19 23 29 31 37 41 43 47 53 59 61 67 71 73 79 83 89 97 101 103 107 109 113 127 131 137 139 149 151 157 163 167 173 179 181 191 193 197 199 211 223 227 229 233 239 241 251 257 263 269 271 277 281
List of prime numbers

Classes of natural numbers

See also

References

External links