A lower bound for primality

Abstract

Recent work by Bernasconi, Damm and Shparlinski proved lower bounds on the circuit complexity of the square-free numbers, and raised as an open question if similar (or stronger) lower bounds could be proved for the set of prime numbers. In this short note, we answer this question affirmatively, by showing that the set of prime numbers (represented in the usual binary notation) is not contained in AC/sup 0/ [p] for any prime p. Similar lower bounds are presented for the set of square-free numbers, and for the problem of computing the greatest common divisor of two numbers.