University of Georgia
Mathematics Department Colloquium
Carl Pomerance
Lucent Technologies Bell Labs
Monday, April 17, 2000
Prime numbers: what we still don't know
Abstract:
The study of prime numbers goes back over two millennia, yet there
are still extremely basic problems that no one can solve. While some of
these problems are exciting just for the intellectual challenge,
others are given urgency by their connection to the security
of many modern forms of cryptography, including those used to
protect commerce on the Internet. In this talk I will highlight
a personal top ten of unsolved problems, and discuss what meager progress
we have made.