(Phys.org) —Two math and physics researchers from the University's of Barcelona and Madrid respectively have developed an algorithm to count prime ... to find one currently is to pick a number ...

But Helfgott, 38, went even farther back in time and conceived an improved version of the sieve of Eratosthenes, a popular method for finding ... or algorithms to identify prime numbers.

A million-dollar puzzle relating to prime numbers could be tackled using only a mid-sized quantum computer. Instead mathematicians find ways to ... the first quantum algorithm to count primes.