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theory

According to the wikipedia article, first we define a sequence as follows:

Then a Mersenne number (M_p = 2^p− 1) is prime iff

practice

The sequence recurrence is straightfoward to define: NB. we define as a dyad so that we may do the modulo arithmetic on every iteration.

seq =: dyad : 'x|_2+*:y'

and, sure enough, the first few terms of the sequence agree with OEIS A00301. NB. 4x is 4 represented as an extended (arbitrary-precision) integer.

        0 seq^:(i.8) 4x
4 14 194 37634 1416317954 2005956546822746114 4023861667741036022825635656102100994 16191462721115671781777559070120513664958590125499158514329308740975788034

Now we define a function, using the iteration operator (^:) to find the residue s_{p − 2}(mod M_p):

res =: monad : '(_1+2x^y) seq^:(y-2) 4x'

wrapping up

We can double check our implementation against the examples in the article:

         res each 3 11
+-+----+
|0|1736|
+-+----+
        (0=res) each 3 11
+-+-+
|1|0|
+-+-+

Or we can test primality in a different manner by counting (#) factors (q:) of the first few Mersenne numbers (M_p = 2^p− 1), then checking that two sets of indications (zero residue or single factor) agree:

        mpf =: monad : '#q:_1+2x^y'
        >((0=res)=(1=mpf)) each p:1+i.15
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Alternatively, we could wrap everything up into the following single-line definition:

llmp =: monad : '0=(_1+2x^y) ([|_2+[:*:])^:(y-2) 4x'

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