An important subcase of the hidden subgroup problem is equivalent to the
shift problem over abelian groups. An efficient solution to the latter problem
would serve as a building block of quantum hidden subgroup algorithms over
solvable groups. The main idea of a promising approach to the shift problem is
reduction to solving systems of certain random disequations in finite abelian
groups. The random disequations are actually generalizations of linear
functions distributed nearly uniformly over those not containing a specific
group element in the kernel. In this paper we give an algorithm which finds the
solutions of a system of N random linear disequations in an abelian p-group A
in time polynomial in N, where N=(log|A|)^{O(q)}, and q is the exponent of A.Comment: 13 page
