NAME nextcand - next candidate for primeness SYNOPSIS nextcand(n [,count [, skip [, residue [,modulus]]]]) TYPES n integer count integer with absolute value less than 2^24, defaults to 1 skip integer. defaults to 1 residue integer, defaults to 0 modulus integer, defaults to 1 return integer DESCRIPTION If modulus is nonzero, nextcand(n, count, skip, residue, modulus) returns the least integer i greater than abs(n) expressible as residue + k * modulus, where k is an integer, for which ptest(i,count,skip) == 1, or if there is no such integer, zero. If abs(n) < 2^32, count >= 0, and the returned value i is not zero, then i is definitely prime. If count is not zero and the returned value i is greater than 2^32, then i is probably prime, particularly if abs(count) > 1. If skip == 0, and abs(n) >= 2^32 or count < 0, the probabilistic test with random bases is used so that if n is composite the probability that it passes ptest() is less than 4^-abs(count). If skip == 1 (the default value), the bases used in the probabilistic test are the first abs(count) primes 2, 3, 5, ... For other values of skip, the bases used in the probabilistic tests are the abs(count) consecutive integers, skip, skip + 1, skip + 2, ... In any case, if the integer returned by nextcand() is not zero, all integers between abs(n) and that integer are composite. If modulus is zero, the value returned is that of residue if this is greater than abs(n) and ptest(residue,count,skip) = 1. Otherwise zero is returned. RUNTIME The runtime for v = nextcand(n, ...) will depend strongly on the number and nature of the integers between n and v. If this number is reasonably large the size of count is largely irrelevant as the compositeness of the numbers between n and v will usually be determined by the test for small prime factors or one pseudoprime test with some base b. If N > 1, count should be positive so that candidates divisible by small primes will be passed over quickly. On the average for random n with large word-count N, the runtime seems to be roughly K/N^3 some constant K. EXAMPLE > print nextcand(50), nextcand(112140,-2), nextcand(112140,-3) 53 112141 112153 > print nextcand(100,1,1,1,6), nextcand(100,1,1,-1,6) 103 101 > print nextcand(100,1,1,2,6), nextcand(100,1,1,303,202) 1 101 > print nextcand(2e60, 1, 1, 31, 1e30) 2000000000000000000000000000053000000000000000000000000000031 LIMITS none LIBRARY int znextcand(ZVALUE n, long count, long skip, ZVALUE res, ZVALUE mod, ZVALUE *cand) SEE ALSO prevcand, ptest