Prime number the 1970s, mathematicians and physicists have speculated that the zeros of the Riemann zeta function are connected to the energy levels of quantum systems. Prime numbers are also significant in quantum information science, thanks to mathematical structures such as mutually unbiased bases and symmetric informationally complete positive-operator-valued measures. The evolutionary strategy used by cicadas of the genus "Magicicada" makes use of prime numbers. These insects spend most of their lives as grubs underground. They only pupate and then emerge from their burrows after 7, 13 or 17 years, at which point they fly about, breed, and then die after a
Prime number are distinct Fermat primes. Likewise, a regular formula_1-gon may be constructed using straightedge, compass, and an angle trisector if and only if the prime factors of formula_1 are any number of copies of 2 or 3 together with a (possibly empty) set of distinct Pierpont primes, primes of the form formula_241. It is possible to partition any convex polygon into formula_1 smaller convex polygons of equal area and equal perimeter, when formula_1 is a power of a prime number, but this is not known for other values of formula_1. Beginning with the work of Hugh Montgomery and Freeman Dyson in