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Can Negative Numbers Be Prime

While negative numbers are traditionally excluded from being considered prime, they can be viewed as prime under an expanded definition. Specifically: Negative numbers cannot be prime under the usual definition that requires primes to be integers greater than one with no positive divisors other than one itself. However, negative numbers can be considered prime if negative divisors are treated as associates of their positive counterparts, since -a divides b if and only if a divides b. So the negative integer -p would be prime if p is prime. Ultimately though, whether negative numbers are prime or not does not significantly impact number theory.

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141 views1 page

Can Negative Numbers Be Prime

While negative numbers are traditionally excluded from being considered prime, they can be viewed as prime under an expanded definition. Specifically: Negative numbers cannot be prime under the usual definition that requires primes to be integers greater than one with no positive divisors other than one itself. However, negative numbers can be considered prime if negative divisors are treated as associates of their positive counterparts, since -a divides b if and only if a divides b. So the negative integer -p would be prime if p is prime. Ultimately though, whether negative numbers are prime or not does not significantly impact number theory.

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chhavish
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7/10/2017 Can negative numbers be prime?

Can negative numbers be


prime?
(from the Prime Pages' list of frequently asked
questions)

New record prime: 274,207,281-1 with 22,338,618 digits by Cooper, Woltman, Kurowski,
Blosser & GIMPS (7 Jan 2016).

Answer One: No.


Home
Search Site By the usual definition of prime for integers, negative integers can not be prime.
Largest By this definition, primes are integers greater than one with no positive divisors besides
The 5000 one and itself. Negative numbers are excluded. In fact, they are given no thought.
Top 20
Finding Answer Two: Yes.
How Many?
Mersenne
Now suppose we want to bring in the negative numbers: then -a divides b when every a
Glossary does, so we treat them as essentially the same divisor. This happens because -1 divides 1,
Prime which in turn divides everything.
Curios!
Prime Lists Numbers that divide one are called units. Two numbers a and b for which a is a unit times
b are called associates. So the divisors a and -a of b above are associates.
FAQ
e-mail list In the same way, -3 and 3 are associates, and in a sense represent the same prime.
Titans
So yes, negative integers can be prime (when viewed this way). In fact the integer -p is
Submit prime whenever p, but since they are associates, we really do not have any new primes.
primes Let's illustrate this with another example.

The Gaussian integers are the complex numbers a+bi where a and b are both integers.
(Here i is the square root of -1). There are four units (integers that divide one) in this
number system: 1, -1, i, and -i. So each prime has four associates.

It is possible to create a system in which each primes has infinitely many associates.

Answer Three: It doesn't matter

In more general number fields the confusion above disappears. That is because most of
these fields are not principal ideal domains and primes then are represented by ideals, not
individual elements. Looked at this way (-3), the set of all multiples of -3, is the same ideal
as (3), the set of multiples of 3.

-3 and 3 then generate exactly the same prime ideal.

Another prime page by Chris K. Caldwell <[email protected]>

https://primes.utm.edu/notes/faq/negative_primes.html 1/1

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