Quote:
Originally Posted by VictordeHolland
And what would this accomplisch?
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I'm not sure what the OP has in mind, but I know that full factorizations of small Mersenne numbers are very useful. For example, they greatly speed up the
non-sqrt-smooth part (which dominates computationally) of
Feitsma's algorithm for listing 2-pseudoprimes. I've heard interest in extending his work beyond 2^64 so this isn't just academic.
As for finding individual factors, I don't know... I guess it just gives simpler/shorter certificates of compositeness.