Algebraic Problems Equivalent to Beating Exponent 3/2 for Polynomial Factorization over Finite Fields

The fastest known algorithm for factoring univariate polynomials over finite fields is the Kedlaya-Umans (fast modular composition) implementation of the Kaltofen-Shoup algorithm. It is randomized and takes $\widetilde{O}(n^{3/2}\log q + n \log^2 q)$ time to factor polynomials of degree $n$ over the finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$ with $q$ elements. A significant open problem is if the $3/2$ exponent can be improved. We study a collection of algebraic problems and establish a web of reductions between them. A consequence is that an algorithm for any one of these problems with exponent better than $3/2$ would yield an algorithm for polynomial factorization with exponent better than $3/2$

Using approximate roots for irreducibility and equi-singularity issues in K[[x]][y]

We provide an irreducibility test in the ring K[[x]][y] whose complexity is quasi-linear with respect to the valuation of the discriminant, assuming the input polynomial F square-free and K a perfect field of characteristic zero or greater than deg(F). The algorithm uses the theory of approximate roots and may be seen as a generalization of Abhyankhar's irreducibility criterion to the case of non algebraically closed residue fields. More generally, we show that we can test within the same complexity if a polynomial is pseudo-irreducible, a larger class of polynomials containing irreducible ones. If $F$ is pseudo-irreducible, the algorithm computes also the valuation of the discriminant and the equisingularity types of the germs of plane curve defined by F along the fiber x=0.Comment: 51 pages. Title modified. Slight modifications in Definition 5 and Proposition 1

Modular Las Vegas Algorithms for Polynomial Absolute Factorization

Let f(X,Y) \in \ZZ[X,Y] be an irreducible polynomial over \QQ. We give a Las Vegas absolute irreducibility test based on a property of the Newton polytope of $f$, or more precisely, of $f$ modulo some prime integer $p$. The same idea of choosing a $p$ satisfying some prescribed properties together with $LLL$ is used to provide a new strategy for absolute factorization of $f(X,Y)$. We present our approach in the bivariate case but the techniques extend to the multivariate case. Maple computations show that it is efficient and promising as we are able to factorize some polynomials of degree up to 400

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationAbstraction plays an important role in digital design, analysis, and verification, as it allows for the refinement of functions through different levels of conceptualization. This dissertation introduces a new method to compute a symbolic, canonical, word-level abstraction of the function implemented by a combinational logic circuit. This abstraction provides a representation of the function as a polynomial Z = F(A) over the Galois field F2k , expressed over the k-bit input to the circuit, A. This representation is easily utilized for formal verification (equivalence checking) of combinational circuits. The approach to abstraction is based upon concepts from commutative algebra and algebraic geometry, notably the Grobner basis theory. It is shown that the polynomial F(A) can be derived by computing a Grobner basis of the polynomials corresponding to the circuit, using a specific elimination term order based on the circuits topology. However, computing Grobner bases using elimination term orders is infeasible for large circuits. To overcome these limitations, this work introduces an efficient symbolic computation to derive the word-level polynomial. The presented algorithms exploit i) the structure of the circuit, ii) the properties of Grobner bases, iii) characteristics of Galois fields F2k , and iv) modern algorithms from symbolic computation. A custom abstraction tool is designed to efficiently implement the abstraction procedure. While the concept is applicable to any arbitrary combinational logic circuit, it is particularly powerful in verification and equivalence checking of hierarchical, custom designed and structurally dissimilar Galois field arithmetic circuits. In most applications, the field size and the datapath size k in the circuits is very large, up to 1024 bits. The proposed abstraction procedure can exploit the hierarchy of the given Galois field arithmetic circuits. Our experiments show that, using this approach, our tool can abstract and verify Galois field arithmetic circuits up to 1024 bits in size. Contemporary techniques fail to verify these types of circuits beyond 163 bits and cannot abstract a canonical representation beyond 32 bits

Cyclone Codes

We introduce Cyclone codes which are rateless erasure resilient codes. They combine Pair codes with Luby Transform (LT) codes by computing a code symbol from a random set of data symbols using bitwise XOR and cyclic shift operations. The number of data symbols is chosen according to the Robust Soliton distribution. XOR and cyclic shift operations establish a unitary commutative ring if data symbols have a length of $p-1$ bits, for some prime number $p$. We consider the graph given by code symbols combining two data symbols. If $n/2$ such random pairs are given for $n$ data symbols, then a giant component appears, which can be resolved in linear time. We can extend Cyclone codes to data symbols of arbitrary even length, provided the Goldbach conjecture holds. Applying results for this giant component, it follows that Cyclone codes have the same encoding and decoding time complexity as LT codes, while the overhead is upper-bounded by those of LT codes. Simulations indicate that Cyclone codes significantly decreases the overhead of extra coding symbols