Mersenne prime
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A Mersenne prime is a prime number that can be expressed as 2ⁿ−1, meaning one less than a power of two. These special primes are mathematically interesting and have been studied for centuries, though it remains unknown whether infinitely many of them exist.
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In mathematics, a Mersenne prime is a prime number that is one less than a power of two. That is, it is a prime number of the form Mn = 2 − 1 for some integer n. They are named after Marin Mersenne, a French Minim friar, who studied them in the early 17th century. If n is a composite number then so is 2 − 1. Therefore, an equivalent definition of the Mersenne primes is that they are the prime numbers of the form Mp = 2 − 1 for some prime p.
The exponents n that give Mersenne primes are 2, 3, 5, 7, 13, 17, 19, 31, ... (sequence A000043 in the OEIS) and the resulting Mersenne primes are 3, 7, 31, 127, 8191, 131071, 524287, 2147483647, ... (sequence A000668 in the OEIS).