The Quine–McCluskey algorithm is a tabular method that simplifies Boolean…

The Quine–McCluskey algorithm is a tabular technique for minimizing a Boolean function. Its central object is the prime implicant — a product term (implicant) built by repeatedly combining minterms until no further combination with another term is possible.

1. List every minterm of the function and group the minterms by the number of 1s in their binary representation.

2. Compare minterms in adjacent groups; wherever two minterms differ in exactly one bit position, combine them into a new term (replacing the differing bit with a dash) and mark both source minterms as combined.

3. Repeat the combination step on the newly formed terms across further passes, and at EVERY pass set aside any term that fails to combine with another — a term is a prime implicant the moment it fails to combine at any pass (the first pass or a later one), so keep accumulating these set-aside terms from all passes rather than looking only at what remains after the very last pass.

4. Build a prime implicant chart mapping each prime implicant to the minterms it covers. Select every essential prime implicant — one that is the ONLY prime implicant covering some particular minterm — then, for any minterm still left uncovered, choose additional (non-essential) prime implicants until all minterms are covered, aiming for the smallest such additional set.

Cross-checking against the offered options:

• "Odd numbers" and "even numbers" describe the parity of an integer value — but the grouping step above uses the COUNT of 1-bits in a minterm's binary code, not whether the minterm's decimal value is odd or even, so parity plays no role in the method.

• "Prime numbers" are integers with exactly two divisors; a "prime implicant" is an unrelated object — a simplified product term that cannot be reduced any further — the shared word "prime" is coincidental.

So the concept the tabular method is organized around — grouping, combining, and finally selecting via the chart — is exactly the identification and selection of prime implicants.