Prime numbers are fundamental to the most common type of encryption used today: the RSA algorithm. The RSA algorithm was named after the three mathematicians who first publicly unveiled it in 1977.

The established research on this test method—as well as the distribution of prime numbers—assured them that they’d find a prime within a reasonable time frame.

A million-dollar puzzle relating to prime numbers could be tackled using only a mid-sized quantum computer. There is a race to find ever bigger primes , but no way to predict when the next one ...