Data Science Method to Discover Large Prime Numbers

Large prime numbers have been a topic of considerable research, for its own mathematical beauty, as well as to develop more powerful cryptographic applications and random number generators. In this article, we show how big data, statistical science (more specifically, pattern recognition) and the use of new efficient, distributed algorithms, could lead to an original research path to discover large primes. Here we also discuss new mathematical conjectures related to our methodology. Much of the focus so far has been on discovering raw large primes: Any time a new one, bigger than all predecessors, is found, it gets a lot of attention even beyond the mathematical community, see here. Here we explore a different path: finding numbers (usually not primes) that have a very large prime factor.