A Fibonacci prime is a Fibonacci number that is prime, a type of integer sequence prime.

Fibonacci prime
No. of known terms17
Conjectured no. of termsInfinite[1]
First terms2, 3, 5, 13, 89, 233
Largest known termF10367321
OEIS index
  • A001605
  • Indices of prime Fibonacci numbers

The first Fibonacci primes are (sequence A005478 in the OEIS):

2, 3, 5, 13, 89, 233, 1597, 28657, 514229, 433494437, 2971215073, ....

Known Fibonacci primes

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Unsolved problem in mathematics:
Are there an infinite number of Fibonacci primes?

It is not known whether there are infinitely many Fibonacci primes. With the indexing starting with F1 = F2 = 1, the first 37 indices n for which Fn is prime are (sequence A001605 in the OEIS):

n = 3, 4, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 23, 29, 43, 47, 83, 131, 137, 359, 431, 433, 449, 509, 569, 571, 2971, 4723, 5387, 9311, 9677, 14431, 25561, 30757, 35999, 37511, 50833, 81839, 104911, 130021, 148091, 201107.

(Note that the actual values Fn rapidly become very large, so, for practicality, only the indices are listed.)

In addition to these proven Fibonacci primes, several probable primes have been found:

n = 397379, 433781, 590041, 593689, 604711, 931517, 1049897, 1285607, 1636007, 1803059, 1968721, 2904353, 3244369, 3340367, 4740217, 6530879, 7789819, 10317107, 10367321.[2]

Except for the case n = 4, all Fibonacci primes have a prime index, because if a divides b, then   also divides   (but not every prime index results in a Fibonacci prime). That is to say, the Fibonacci sequence is a divisibility sequence.

Fp is prime for 8 of the first 10 primes p; the exceptions are F2 = 1 and F19 = 4181 = 37 × 113. However, Fibonacci primes appear to become rarer as the index increases. Fp is prime for only 26 of the 1229 primes p smaller than 10,000.[3] The number of prime factors in the Fibonacci numbers with prime index are:

0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 2, 3, 2, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 2, 2, 2, 1, 2, 4, 2, 3, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1, 1, 3, 4, 2, 4, 4, 2, 2, 3, 3, 2, 2, 4, 2, 4, 4, 2, 5, 3, 4, 3, 2, 3, 3, 4, 2, 2, 3, 4, 2, 4, 4, 4, 3, 2, 3, 5, 4, 2, 1, ... (sequence A080345 in the OEIS)

As of September 2023, the largest known certain Fibonacci prime is F201107, with 42029 digits. It was proved prime by Maia Karpovich in September 2023.[4] The largest known probable Fibonacci prime is F10367321. It was found by Ryan Propper in July 2024.[2] It was proved by Nick MacKinnon that the only Fibonacci numbers that are also twin primes are 3, 5, and 13.[5]

Divisibility of Fibonacci numbers

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A prime   divides   if and only if p is congruent to ±1 modulo 5, and p divides   if and only if it is congruent to ±2 modulo 5. (For p = 5, F5 = 5 so 5 divides F5)

Fibonacci numbers that have a prime index p do not share any common divisors greater than 1 with the preceding Fibonacci numbers, due to the identity:[6]

 

For n ≥ 3, Fn divides Fm if and only if n divides m.[7]

If we suppose that m is a prime number p, and n is less than p, then it is clear that Fp cannot share any common divisors with the preceding Fibonacci numbers.

 

This means that Fp will always have characteristic factors or be a prime characteristic factor itself. The number of distinct prime factors of each Fibonacci number can be put into simple terms.

  • Fnk is a multiple of Fk for all values of n and k such that n ≥ 1 and k ≥ 1.[8] It's safe to say that Fnk will have "at least" the same number of distinct prime factors as Fk. All Fp will have no factors of Fk, but "at least" one new characteristic prime from Carmichael's theorem.
  • Carmichael's Theorem applies to all Fibonacci numbers except four special cases:   and   If we look at the prime factors of a Fibonacci number, there will be at least one of them that has never before appeared as a factor in any earlier Fibonacci number. Let πn be the number of distinct prime factors of Fn. (sequence A022307 in the OEIS)
If k | n then   except for  
If k = 1, and n is an odd prime, then 1 | p and  
n 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
Fn 0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144 233 377 610 987 1597 2584 4181 6765 10946 17711 28657 46368 75025
πn 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 1 2 1 2 3 3 1 3 2 4 3 2 1 4 2

The first step in finding the characteristic quotient of any Fn is to divide out the prime factors of all earlier Fibonacci numbers Fk for which k | n.[9]

The exact quotients left over are prime factors that have not yet appeared.

If p and q are both primes, then all factors of Fpq are characteristic, except for those of Fp and Fq.

 

Therefore:

 

The number of distinct prime factors of the Fibonacci numbers with a prime index is directly relevant to the counting function. (sequence A080345 in the OEIS)

p 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
πp 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 3 2 1 1 2 2 2 3 2 2 2 1 2 4

Rank of apparition

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For a prime p, the smallest index u > 0 such that Fu is divisible by p is called the rank of apparition (sometimes called Fibonacci entry point) of p and denoted a(p). The rank of apparition a(p) is defined for every prime p.[10] The rank of apparition divides the Pisano period π(p) and allows to determine all Fibonacci numbers divisible by p.[11]

For the divisibility of Fibonacci numbers by powers of a prime,   and  

 

In particular

 

Wall–Sun–Sun primes

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A prime p ≠ 2, 5 is called a Fibonacci–Wieferich prime or a Wall–Sun–Sun prime if   where

 

and   is the Legendre symbol:

 

It is known that for p ≠ 2, 5, a(p) is a divisor of:[12]

 

For every prime p that is not a Wall–Sun–Sun prime,   as illustrated in the table below:

p 2 3 5 7 11 13 17 19 23 29 31 37 41 43 47 53 59 61
a(p) 3 4 5 8 10 7 9 18 24 14 30 19 20 44 16 27 58 15
a(p2) 6 12 25 56 110 91 153 342 552 406 930 703 820 1892 752 1431 3422 915

The existence of Wall–Sun–Sun primes is conjectural.

Fibonacci primitive part

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Because  , we can divide any Fibonacci number   by the least common multiple of all   where  . The result is called the primitive part of  . The primitive parts of the Fibonacci numbers are

1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 4, 13, 7, 17, 11, 89, 6, 233, 29, 61, 47, 1597, 19, 4181, 41, 421, 199, 28657, 46, 15005, 521, 5777, 281, 514229, 31, 1346269, 2207, 19801, 3571, 141961, 321, 24157817, 9349, 135721, 2161, 165580141, 211, 433494437, 13201, 109441, ... (sequence A061446 in the OEIS)

Any primes that divide   and not any of the  s are called primitive prime factors of  . The product of the primitive prime factors of the Fibonacci numbers are

1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 1, 13, 7, 17, 11, 89, 1, 233, 29, 61, 47, 1597, 19, 4181, 41, 421, 199, 28657, 23, 3001, 521, 5777, 281, 514229, 31, 1346269, 2207, 19801, 3571, 141961, 107, 24157817, 9349, 135721, 2161, 165580141, 211, 433494437, 13201, 109441, 64079, 2971215073, 1103, 598364773, 15251, ... (sequence A178763 in the OEIS)

The first case of more than one primitive prime factor is 4181 = 37 × 113 for  .

The primitive part has a non-primitive prime factor in some cases. The ratio between the two above sequences is

1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 4, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 3, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 5, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 3, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 7, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 13, 1, 1, .... (sequence A178764 in the OEIS)

The natural numbers n for which   has exactly one primitive prime factor are

3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 38, 39, 40, 42, 43, 45, 47, 48, 51, 52, 54, 56, 60, 62, 63, 65, 66, 72, 74, 75, 76, 82, 83, 93, 94, 98, 105, 106, 108, 111, 112, 119, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 131, 132, 135, 136, 137, 140, 142, 144, 145, ... (sequence A152012 in the OEIS)

For a prime p, p is in this sequence if and only if   is a Fibonacci prime, and 2p is in this sequence if and only if   is a Lucas prime (where   is the  th Lucas number). Moreover, 2n is in this sequence if and only if   is a Lucas prime.

The number of primitive prime factors of   are

0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 3, 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 1, 2, 2, 1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 2, 2, 1, 2, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 3, 2, 3, 2, 2, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1, 1, 3, 2, 4, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 2, 1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 2, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, ... (sequence A086597 in the OEIS)

The least primitive prime factors of   are

1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 1, 13, 7, 17, 11, 89, 1, 233, 29, 61, 47, 1597, 19, 37, 41, 421, 199, 28657, 23, 3001, 521, 53, 281, 514229, 31, 557, 2207, 19801, 3571, 141961, 107, 73, 9349, 135721, 2161, 2789, 211, 433494437, 43, 109441, 139, 2971215073, 1103, 97, 101, ... (sequence A001578 in the OEIS)

It is conjectured that all the prime factors of   are primitive when   is a prime number.[13]

Fibonacci numbers in prime-like sequences

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Although it is not known whether there are infinitely primes in the Fibonacci sequence, Melfi proved that there are infinitely many primes[14] among practical numbers, a prime-like sequence.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Fibonacci Prime".
  2. ^ a b PRP Top Records, Search for : F(n). Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  3. ^ Sloane's OEISA005478, OEISA001605
  4. ^ "The Top Twenty: Fibonacci Number". primes.utm.edu. Retrieved 15 September 2023.
  5. ^ N. MacKinnon, Problem 10844, Amer. Math. Monthly 109, (2002), p. 78
  6. ^ Paulo Ribenboim, My Numbers, My Friends, Springer-Verlag 2000
  7. ^ Wells 1986, p.65
  8. ^ The mathematical magic of Fibonacci numbers Factors of Fibonacci numbers
  9. ^ Jarden - Recurring sequences, Volume 1, Fibonacci quarterly, by Brother U. Alfred
  10. ^ (sequence A001602 in the OEIS)
  11. ^ John Vinson (1963). "The Relation of the Period Modulo m to the Rank of Apparition of m in the Fibonacci Sequence" (PDF). Fibonacci Quarterly. 1: 37–45.
  12. ^ Steven Vajda. Fibonacci and Lucas Numbers, and the Golden Section: Theory and Applications. Dover Books on Mathematics.
  13. ^ The mathematical magic of Fibonacci numbers Fibonacci Numbers and Primes
  14. ^ Giuseppe Melfi (1995). "A survey on practical numbers" (PDF). Rend. Sem. Mat. Torino. 53: 347–359.
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