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In mathematics, a unique prime is a certain kind of prime number. A prime p ≠ 2, 5 is called unique iff there is no other prime q such that the period length of its reciprocal, 1 / p, is equivalent to the period length of the reciprocal of q, 1 / q. Unique primes were first described by Samuel Yates in 1980.
It can be shown that a prime p is of unique period n iff there exists a natural number c such that
where Φn(x) is the n-th cyclotomic polynomial; until today, 18 unique primes are known, and no others exist below 1050. The following table gives an overview of all known unique primes (sequence in OEIS) and their periods (sequence in OEIS):
| Period length | Prime |
|---|---|
| 1 | 3 |
| 2 | 11 |
| 3 | 37 |
| 4 | 101 |
| 10 | 9,091 |
| 12 | 9,901 |
| 9 | 333,667 |
| 14 | 909,091 |
| 24 | 99,990,001 |
| 36 | 999,999,000,001 |
| 48 | 9,999,999,900,000,001 |
| 38 | 909,090,909,090,909,091 |
| 19 | 1,111,111,111,111,111,111 |
| 23 | 11,111,111,111,111,111,111,111 |
| 39 | 900,900,900,900,990,990,990,991 |
| 62 | 909,090,909,090,909,090,909,090,909,091 |
| 120 | 100,009,999,999,899,989,999,000,000,010,001 |
| 150 | 10,000,099,999,999,989,999,899,999,000,000,000,100,001 |