Primeval number

In recreational number theory, a primeval number is a natural number n for which the number of prime numbers which can be obtained by permuting some or all of its digits (in base 10) is larger than the number of primes obtainable in the same way for any smaller natural number. Primeval numbers were first described by Mike Keith.

The first few primeval numbers are

1, 2, 13, 37, 107, 113, 137, 1013, 1037, 1079, 1237, 1367, 1379, 10079, 10123, 10136, 10139, 10237, 10279, 10367, 10379, 12379, 13679, ... (sequence A072857 in the OEIS)

The number of primes that can be obtained from the primeval numbers is

0, 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 11, 14, 19, 21, 26, 29, 31, 33, 35, 41, 53, 55, 60, 64, 89, 96, 106, ... (sequence A076497 in the OEIS)

The largest number of primes that can be obtained from a primeval number with n digits is

1, 4, 11, 31, 106, 402, 1953, 10542, 64905, 362451, 2970505, ... (sequence A076730 in the OEIS)

The smallest n-digit number to achieve this number of primes is

2, 37, 137, 1379, 13679, 123479, 1234679, 12345679, 102345679, 1123456789, 10123456789, ... (sequence A134596 in the OEIS)

Primeval numbers can be composite. The first is 1037 = 17×61. A Primeval prime is a primeval number which is also a prime number:

2, 13, 37, 107, 113, 137, 1013, 1237, 1367, 10079, 10139, 12379, 13679, 100279, 100379, 123479, 1001237, 1002347, 1003679, 1012379, ... (sequence A119535 in the OEIS)

The following table shows the first seven primeval numbers with the obtainable primes and the number of them.

Primeval number	Primes obtained	Number of primes
1		0
2	2	1
13	3, 13, 31	3
37	3, 7, 37, 73	4
107	7, 17, 71, 107, 701	5
113	3, 11, 13, 31, 113, 131, 311	7
137	3, 7, 13, 17, 31, 37, 71, 73, 137, 173, 317	11

Base 12

In base 12, the primeval numbers are: (using inverted two and three for ten and eleven, respectively)

1, 2, 13, 15, 57, 115, 117, 125, 135, 157, 1017, 1057, 1157, 1257, 125Ɛ, 157Ɛ, 167Ɛ, ...

The number of primes that can be obtained from the primeval numbers is: (written in base 10)

0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 20, 23, 27, 29, 33, 35, ...

Primeval number	Primes obtained	Number of primes (written in base 10)
1		0
2	2	1
13	3, 31	2
15	5, 15, 51	3
57	5, 7, 57, 75	4
115	5, 11, 15, 51, 511	5
117	7, 11, 17, 117, 171, 711	6
125	2, 5, 15, 25, 51, 125, 251	7
135	3, 5, 15, 31, 35, 51, 315, 531	8
157	5, 7, 15, 17, 51, 57, 75, 157, 175, 517, 751	11

Note that 13, 115 and 135 are composite: 13 = 3×5, 115 = 7×1Ɛ, and 135 = 5×31.

External links

Chris Caldwell, The Prime Glossary: Primeval number at The Prime Pages
Mike Keith, Integers Containing Many Embedded Primes

Classes of natural numbers

Powers and related numbers
Achilles Power of 2 Power of 3 Power of 10 Square Cube Fourth power Fifth power Sixth power Seventh power Eighth power Perfect power Powerful Prime power

Of the form a × 2^b ± 1
Cullen Double Mersenne Fermat Mersenne Proth Thabit Woodall

Other polynomial numbers
Hilbert Idoneal Leyland Loeschian Lucky numbers of Euler

Recursively defined numbers
Fibonacci Jacobsthal Leonardo Lucas Narayana Padovan Pell Perrin

Possessing a specific set of other numbers
Amenable Congruent Knödel Riesel Sierpiński

Expressible via specific sums
Nonhypotenuse Polite Practical Primary pseudoperfect Ulam Wolstenholme

Figurate numbers

2-dimensional

centered	Centered triangular Centered square Centered pentagonal Centered hexagonal Centered heptagonal Centered octagonal Centered nonagonal Centered decagonal Star
non-centered	Triangular Square Square triangular Pentagonal Hexagonal Heptagonal Octagonal Nonagonal Decagonal Dodecagonal

3-dimensional

centered	Centered tetrahedral Centered cube Centered octahedral Centered dodecahedral Centered icosahedral
non-centered	Tetrahedral Cubic Octahedral Dodecahedral Icosahedral Stella octangula
pyramidal	Square pyramidal

4-dimensional

non-centered	Pentatope Squared triangular Tesseractic

Combinatorial numbers
Bell Cake Catalan Dedekind Delannoy Euler Eulerian Fuss–Catalan Lah Lazy caterer's sequence Lobb Motzkin Narayana Ordered Bell Schröder Schröder–Hipparchus Stirling first Stirling second Telephone number Wedderburn–Etherington

Primes
Wieferich Wall–Sun–Sun Wolstenholme prime Wilson

Pseudoprimes
Carmichael number Catalan pseudoprime Elliptic pseudoprime Euler pseudoprime Euler–Jacobi pseudoprime Fermat pseudoprime Frobenius pseudoprime Lucas pseudoprime Lucas–Carmichael number Perrin pseudoprime Somer–Lucas pseudoprime Strong pseudoprime

Arithmetic functions and dynamics

Divisor functions	Abundant Almost perfect Arithmetic Betrothed Colossally abundant Deficient Descartes Hemiperfect Highly abundant Highly composite Hyperperfect Multiply perfect Perfect Practical Primitive abundant Quasiperfect Refactorable Semiperfect Sublime Superabundant Superior highly composite Superperfect
Prime omega functions	Almost prime Semiprime
Euler's totient function	Highly cototient Highly totient Noncototient Nontotient Perfect totient Sparsely totient
Aliquot sequences	Amicable Perfect Sociable Untouchable
Primorial	Euclid Fortunate

Other prime factor or divisor related numbers
Blum Cyclic Erdős–Nicolas Erdős–Woods Friendly Giuga Harmonic divisor Jordan–Pólya Lucas–Carmichael Pronic Regular Rough Smooth Sphenic Størmer Super-Poulet Zeisel

Numeral system-dependent numbers

Arithmetic functions
and dynamics

Persistence
- Additive
- Multiplicative

Digit sum	Digit sum Digital root Self Sum-product
Digit product	Multiplicative digital root Sum-product
Coding-related	Meertens
Other	Dudeney Factorion Kaprekar Kaprekar's constant Keith Lychrel Narcissistic Perfect digit-to-digit invariant Perfect digital invariant Happy

P-adic numbers-related

Automorphic
- Trimorphic

Digit-composition related

Digit-permutation related

Divisor-related

Other

Friedman

Binary numbers
Evil Odious Pernicious

Generated via a sieve
Lucky Prime

Sorting related
Pancake number Sorting number

Natural language related
Aronson's sequence Ban

Graphemics related
Strobogrammatic

Mathematics portal

v t e Prime number classes
By formula	Fermat (2^2ⁿ + 1) Mersenne (2^p − 1) Double Mersenne (2^{2^p−1} − 1) Wagstaff (2^p + 1)/3 Proth (k·2ⁿ + 1) Factorial (n! ± 1) Primorial (p_n# ± 1) Euclid (p_n# + 1) Pythagorean (4n + 1) Pierpont (2^m·3ⁿ + 1) Quartan (x⁴ + y⁴) Solinas (2^m ± 2ⁿ ± 1) Cullen (n·2ⁿ + 1) Woodall (n·2ⁿ − 1) Cuban (x³ − y³)/(x − y) Leyland (x^y + y^x) Thabit (3·2ⁿ − 1) Williams ((b−1)·bⁿ − 1) Mills (⌊A^3ⁿ⌋)
By integer sequence	Fibonacci Lucas Pell Newman–Shanks–Williams Perrin
By property	Wieferich (pair) Wall–Sun–Sun Wolstenholme Wilson Lucky Fortunate Ramanujan Pillai Regular Strong Stern Supersingular (elliptic curve) Supersingular (moonshine theory) Good Super Higgs Highly cototient Unique
Base-dependent	Palindromic Emirp Repunit (10ⁿ − 1)/9 Permutable Circular Truncatable Minimal Delicate Primeval Full reptend Unique Happy Self Smarandache–Wellin Strobogrammatic Dihedral Tetradic
Patterns	Twin (p, p + 2) Bi-twin chain (n ± 1, 2n ± 1, 4n ± 1, …) Triplet (p, p + 2 or p + 4, p + 6) Quadruplet (p, p + 2, p + 6, p + 8) k-tuple Cousin (p, p + 4) Sexy (p, p + 6) Chen Sophie Germain/Safe (p, 2p + 1) Cunningham (p, 2p ± 1, 4p ± 3, 8p ± 7, ...) Arithmetic progression (p + a·n, n = 0, 1, 2, 3, ...) Balanced (consecutive p − n, p, p + n)
By size	Mega (1,000,000+ digits) Largest known list
Complex numbers	Eisenstein prime Gaussian prime
Composite numbers	Pseudoprime Catalan Elliptic Euler Euler–Jacobi Fermat Frobenius Lucas Perrin Somer–Lucas Strong Carmichael number Almost prime Semiprime Sphenic number Interprime Pernicious
Related topics	Probable prime Industrial-grade prime Illegal prime Formula for primes Prime gap
First 60 primes	2 3 5 7 11 13 17 19 23 29 31 37 41 43 47 53 59 61 67 71 73 79 83 89 97 101 103 107 109 113 127 131 137 139 149 151 157 163 167 173 179 181 191 193 197 199 211 223 227 229 233 239 241 251 257 263 269 271 277 281
List of prime numbers