Accelerating the CM method

Given a prime q and a negative discriminant D, the CM method constructs an elliptic curve E/\Fq by obtaining a root of the Hilbert class polynomial H_D(X) modulo q. We consider an approach based on a decomposition of the ring class field defined by H_D, which we adapt to a CRT setting. This yields two algorithms, each of which obtains a root of H_D mod q without necessarily computing any of its coefficients. Heuristically, our approach uses asymptotically less time and space than the standard CM method for almost all D. Under the GRH, and reasonable assumptions about the size of log q relative to |D|, we achieve a space complexity of O((m+n)log q) bits, where mn=h(D), which may be as small as O(|D|^(1/4)log q). The practical efficiency of the algorithms is demonstrated using |D| > 10^16 and q ~ 2^256, and also |D| > 10^15 and q ~ 2^33220. These examples are both an order of magnitude larger than the best previous results obtained with the CM method.Comment: 36 pages, minor edits, to appear in the LMS Journal of Computation and Mathematic

Complex Multiplication Tests for Elliptic Curves

We consider the problem of checking whether an elliptic curve defined over a given number field has complex multiplication. We study two polynomial time algorithms for this problem, one randomized and the other deterministic. The randomized algorithm can be adapted to yield the discriminant of the endomorphism ring of the curve.Comment: 13 pages, 2 tables, 1 appendi

Finding Significant Fourier Coefficients: Clarifications, Simplifications, Applications and Limitations

Ideas from Fourier analysis have been used in cryptography for the last three decades. Akavia, Goldwasser and Safra unified some of these ideas to give a complete algorithm that finds significant Fourier coefficients of functions on any finite abelian group. Their algorithm stimulated a lot of interest in the cryptography community, especially in the context of `bit security'. This manuscript attempts to be a friendly and comprehensive guide to the tools and results in this field. The intended readership is cryptographers who have heard about these tools and seek an understanding of their mechanics and their usefulness and limitations. A compact overview of the algorithm is presented with emphasis on the ideas behind it. We show how these ideas can be extended to a `modulus-switching' variant of the algorithm. We survey some applications of this algorithm, and explain that several results should be taken in the right context. In particular, we point out that some of the most important bit security problems are still open. Our original contributions include: a discussion of the limitations on the usefulness of these tools; an answer to an open question about the modular inversion hidden number problem

Computing Hilbert class polynomials with the Chinese Remainder Theorem

We present a space-efficient algorithm to compute the Hilbert class polynomial H_D(X) modulo a positive integer P, based on an explicit form of the Chinese Remainder Theorem. Under the Generalized Riemann Hypothesis, the algorithm uses O(|D|^(1/2+o(1))log P) space and has an expected running time of O(|D|^(1+o(1)). We describe practical optimizations that allow us to handle larger discriminants than other methods, with |D| as large as 10^13 and h(D) up to 10^6. We apply these results to construct pairing-friendly elliptic curves of prime order, using the CM method.Comment: 37 pages, corrected a typo that misstated the heuristic complexit