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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 August 2016
A perfect number is a number which is the sum of all its divisors except itself, the smallest such number being 6. By results due to Euclid and Euler, all the even perfect numbers are of the form 2P-1(2p - 1) where p and 2p - 1 are primes; the latter one is called a Mersenne prime. Whether there are infinitely many Mersenne primes is a notoriously difficult problem, as is the problem of whether there is an odd perfect number.