Counting composites with two strong liars

preprint2013arXivOpen access

Abstract

The strong probable primality test is an important practical tool for discovering prime numbers. Its effectiveness derives from the following fact: for any odd composite number nn, if a base aa is chosen at random, the algorithm is unlikely to claim that nn is prime. If this does happen we call aa a liar. In 1986, Erdős and Pomerance computed the normal and average number of liars, over all n≤xn \leq x. We continue this theme and use a variety of techniques to count n≤xn \leq x with exactly two strong liars, those being the nn for which the strong test is maximally effective. We evaluate this count asymptotically and give an improved algorithm to determine it exactly. We also provide asymptotic counts for the restricted case in which nn has two prime factors, and for the nn with exactly two Euler liars.

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