Abstract. In 1876, E. Lucas showed that a quick proof of primality for a prime p could be attained through the prime factorization of p − 1 and a primitive root for p. V. Pratt’s proof that PRIMES is in NP, done via Lucas’s theorem, showed that a certificate of primality for a prime p could be obtained in O(log 2 p) modular multiplications with integers at most p. We show that for all constants C ∈ R, the number of modular multiplications necessary to obtain this certificate is greater than C log p for a set of primes p with relative asymptotic density 1. 1.

ABSTRACT. We study the distribution of prime chains, which are sequences p1,..., pk of primes for which pj+1 ≡ 1 (mod pj) for each j. We first give conditional upper bounds on the length of Cunningham chains, chains with pj+1 = 2pj +1 for each j. We give estimates for P (x), the number of chains with pk � x (k variable), and P (x; p), the number of chains with p1 = p and pk � px. The majority of the paper concerns the distribution of H(p), the length of the longest chain with pk = p, which is also the height of the Pratt tree for p. We show H(p) � c log log p and H(p) � (log p) 1−c′ for almost all p, with c, c ′ explicit positive constants. We can take, for any ε> 0, c = e − ε assuming the Elliott-Halberstam conjecture. A stochastic model of the Pratt tree is introduced and analyzed. The model suggests that for most p � x, H(p) stays very close to e log log x. 1.

This paper deals with products of moderate-size primes, familiarly known as smooth numbers. Smooth numbers play an crucial role in information theory, signal processing and cryptography. We present various properties of smooth numbers relating to their enumeration, distribution and occurrence in various integer sequences. We then turn our attention to cryptographic applications in which smooth numbers play a pivotal role. 1 1