Definition:Mersenne Prime/GIMPS

Definition

The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search, known as G.I.M.P.S. (or just GIMPS), has become a gathering place for Number Theorists interested in the discovery of the Mersenne primes.

It was founded by George F. Woltman in early $1996$.

All the Mersenne primes discovered from November $1996$ onwards have been discovered by this team.

In particular August and September of $2008$ alone, both the $45$th and $46$th Mersenne primes were discovered:

$M_{43,112,609}$ (a $12,978,189$ digit number)

and

$M_{37,156,667}$ (an $11,185,272$ digit number)

becoming the first Mersenne primes of $10$ million digits to be found.

You can follow the work of G.I.M.P.S. at www.mersenne.org.