factorial prime

The only factorial that is prime is 2!, so if "factorial primes" are to be worth mentioning, the term must mean something other than a factorial that is prime.  In fact, as usually defined, factorial primes come in two flavors: factorials plus one (n!+1) and factorials minus one (n!-1).  It is conjectured that there are infinitely many of each of these. Both forms have been tested to n=37000 [CG2000].

See Also: Factorial, PrimorialPrime, MultifactorialPrime

Related pages (outside of this work)

References:

BCP82
J. P. Buhler, R. E. Crandall and M. A. Penk, "Primes of the form n! ± 1 and 2 · 3 · 5 ... p ± 1," Math. Comp., 38:158 (1982) 639--643.  Corrigendum in Math. Comp. 40 (1983), 727.  MR 83c:10006
Borning72
A. Borning, "Some results for k! ± 1 and 2 · 3 · 5 ... p ± 1," Math. Comp., 26 (1972) 567--570.  MR 46:7133
Caldwell95
C. Caldwell, "On the primality of n! ± 1 and 2 · 3 · 5 ... p ± 1," Math. Comp., 64:2 (1995) 889--890.  MR 95g:11003
CG2000
C. Caldwell and Y. Gallot, "On the primality of n! ± 1 and 2 × 3 × 5 × ... × p ± 1," Math. Comp., 71:237 (2002) 441--448.  MR 2002g:11011 (Abstract available) (Annotation available)
Templer80
M. Templer, "On the primality of k! + 1 and 2 * 3 * 5 * ... * p + 1," Math. Comp., 34 (1980) 303-304.  MR 80j:10010
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