Generalized Riemann hypotheses: sufficient and equivalent criteria

This paper presents new sufficient and equivalent conditions for the generalized version of the Riemann Hypothesis. The paper derives also statements and remarks concerning zero-free regions, modified Hadamard-product formulas and the behaviour of $|\frac{L(\bar{\chi},s)}{L(\chi,1-s)}|$.Comment: Few changes. Accepted for publication in JP Journal of Algebra, Number Theory and Application

Zeros of the Hurwitz zeta function in the interval (0,1)

We first give a condition on the parameters $s,w$ under which the Hurwitz zeta function $\zeta(s,w)$ has no zeros and is actually negative. As a corollary we derive that it is nonzero for $w\geq 1$ and $s\in(0,1)$ and, as a particular instance, the known result that the classical zeta function has no zeros in $(0,1)$.Comment: Some reformulation done. Accepted for publication in Journal of Combinatorics and Number Theor

On Canonical Subfield Preserving Polynomials

Explicit monoid structure is provided for the class of canonical subfield preserving polynomials over finite fields. Some classical results and asymptotic estimates will follow as corollaries.Comment: (To appear in Acta Arithmetica

Coding Solutions for the Secure Biometric Storage Problem

The paper studies the problem of securely storing biometric passwords, such as fingerprints and irises. With the help of coding theory Juels and Wattenberg derived in 1999 a scheme where similar input strings will be accepted as the same biometric. In the same time nothing could be learned from the stored data. They called their scheme a "fuzzy commitment scheme". In this paper we will revisit the solution of Juels and Wattenberg and we will provide answers to two important questions: What type of error-correcting codes should be used and what happens if biometric templates are not uniformly distributed, i.e. the biometric data come with redundancy. Answering the first question will lead us to the search for low-rate large-minimum distance error-correcting codes which come with efficient decoding algorithms up to the designed distance. In order to answer the second question we relate the rate required with a quantity connected to the "entropy" of the string, trying to estimate a sort of "capacity", if we want to see a flavor of the converse of Shannon's noisy coding theorem. Finally we deal with side-problems arising in a practical implementation and we propose a possible solution to the main one that seems to have so far prevented real life applications of the fuzzy scheme, as far as we know.Comment: the final version appeared in Proceedings Information Theory Workshop (ITW) 2010, IEEE copyrigh

Efficient evaluation of polynomials over finite fields

A method is described which allows to evaluate efficiently a polynomial in a (possibly trivial) extension of the finite field of its coefficients. Its complexity is shown to be lower than that of standard techniques when the degree of the polynomial is large with respect to the base field. Applications to the syndrome computation in the decoding of cyclic codes, Reed-Solomon codes in particular, are highlighted.Comment: presented at AusCTW 201

The Rabin cryptosystem revisited

The Rabin public-key cryptosystem is revisited with a focus on the problem of identifying the encrypted message unambiguously for any pair of primes. In particular, a deterministic scheme using quartic reciprocity is described that works for primes congruent 5 modulo 8, a case that was still open. Both theoretical and practical solutions are presented. The Rabin signature is also reconsidered and a deterministic padding mechanism is proposed.Comment: minor review + introduction of a deterministic scheme using quartic reciprocity that works for primes congruent 5 modulo

An Active Attack on a Multiparty Key Exchange Protocol

The multiparty key exchange introduced in Steiner et al.\@ and presented in more general form by the authors is known to be secure against passive attacks. In this paper, an active attack is presented assuming malicious control of the communications of the last two users for the duration of only the key exchange