A245511 Smallest m such that the largest odd number < n^m is not prime.

1, 1, 2, 3, 2, 3, 2, 4, 1, 1, 2, 3, 2, 4, 1, 1, 2, 4, 2, 3, 1, 1, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 1, 1, 2, 3, 2, 2, 1, 1, 2, 3, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 2, 3, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 1, 1, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1

Offset

2,3

Comments

The locution "largest odd number < n^m" means n^m-1 for even n and n^m-2 for odd n.

The record values in this sequence are a(2)=1, a(4)=2, a(5)=3, a(9)=4, a(279)=5, a(15331)=6, a(1685775)=7. No higher value was found up to 5500000 (see also A245512). It is not clear whether a(n) is bounded.

Links

Stanislav Sykora, Table of n, a(n) for n = 2..10000

Example

a(2)=1 because 2^1-1 is 1, which is not a prime.
a(5)=3 because the numbers 5^k-2, for k=1,2,3,.., are 3,23,123,... and the first nonprime among them corresponds to k=3.

Mathematica

f[n_] := Block[{m = 1, d = If[ OddQ@ n, 2, 1]}, While[t = n^m - d; EvenQ@ t || PrimeQ@ t, m++]; m]; Array[f, 105, 2] (* Robert G. Wilson v, Aug 04 2014 *)

Prog

(PARI) avector(nmax)={my(n, k, d=2, v=vector(nmax)); for(n=2, #v+1, d=3-d; k=1; while(1, if(!isprime(n^k-d), v[n-1]=k; break, k++)); ); return(v); }
a=avector(10000)  \\ For nmax=6000000 runs out of 1GB memory

Crossrefs

Cf. A245509, A245510, A245512, A245513, A245514.

Sequence in context: A361929 A252941 A069898 * A259940 A228829 A341982

Adjacent sequences: A245508 A245509 A245510 * A245512 A245513 A245514

Keyword

nonn

Author

Stanislav Sykora, Jul 24 2014

Status

approved