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elliptic curve primality proving (another Prime Pages' Glossary entries) |
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Glossary:
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An Elliptic curve is a curve of genus one,
that is a curve that can be written in the form
E(a,b) : y2 = x3 + ax + b (with 4a3 + 27b2 not zero) They are called "elliptic" because these equations first arose in the calculation of the arc-lengths of ellipses.
If we then reduce this group modulo a prime p we get a small group E(a,b)/p whose size can be used in roughly the way we use the size of (Z/pZ)* in the first of the classical primality tests. Let |E| be the order (size) of the group E: Theorem: |E(a,b)/p| lies in the interval (p+1-2sqrt(p),p+1+2sqrt(p)) and the orders are fairly uniformly distributed (as we vary a and b).So the elliptic curve primality proving algorithm (ECPP for short) has replaced the groups of order n-1 and n+1 used in the classical test with a far larger range of group sizes. We can keep switching curves until we find one we can "factor". This improvement comes at the cost of having to do a great deal of work to find the actual size of these groups--but works for all numbers, not just those with very special forms. About 1986 S. Goldwasser & J. Kilian [GK86] and A. O. L. Atkin [Atkin86] introduced elliptic curve primality proving methods. Atkin's method, ECPP, was implemented by a number of mathematicians, including Atkin & Morain [AM93]. Heuristically, ECPP is O((log n)5+eps) (with fast multiplication techniques) for some eps>0 [LL90]. It has been proven to be polynomial time for almost all choices of inputs. A version attributed to J. O. Shallit may be O((log n)4+eps). François Morain, who first set the record for proving primality via ECPP, has made his program available to all. More recently Marcel Martin wrote a version called Primo for Windows machines. Version of these two programs hold most of the records.
Related pages (outside of this work)
References:
Chris K. Caldwell © 1999-2013 (all rights reserved)
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The
rational points on such a curve form a group with addition defined using the
"chord and tangent method:" That is, if the two points P1
and P2 are rational (have rational coefficients), then the line through
P1 and P2 intersects the curve again in a third rational
point which we call -(P1+P2) (the negative is to make
the associative law work out). Reflect through the x-axis to get
P1+P2. (If P1 and P2 are not
distinct, then use the tangent line at P1.)