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 prime and composite numbers. However, the earliest surviving records of the explicit study of prime numbers come from Ancient Greek mathematics. Euclid's "Elements" (circa 300 BC) proves the infinitude of primes and the fundamental theorem of arithmetic, and shows how to construct a perfect number from a Mersenne prime. Another Greek invention, the Sieve of Eratosthenes, is still used to construct lists of primes. Around 1000 AD, the Islamic mathematician Alhazen found Wilson's theorem, characterizing the prime numbers as the numbers formula_1 that evenly divide formula_17. Alhazen also conjectured that all even perfect numbers come from Euclid's construction using Mersenne