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Tenth Algorithmic Number Theory Symposium ANTS-X
University of California, San Diego
July 9 – 13, 2012

Tenth Algorithmic Number Theory Symposium (ANTS-X)
July 9 – 13, 2012

Deterministic elliptic curve primality proving for a special sequence of numbers

Alexander Abatzoglou, Alice Silverberg, Andrew V. Sutherland, and Angela Wong

Abstract: We give a deterministic algorithm that very quickly proves the primality or compositeness of the integers N in a certain sequence, using an elliptic curve E/Q with complex multiplication by the ring of integers of Q(sqrt{-7}). The algorithm uses O(log N) arithmetic operations in the ring Z/NZ, implying a bit complexity that is quasi-quadratic in log N. Notably, neither of the classical "N-1" or "N+1" primality tests apply to the integers in our sequence. We discuss how this algorithm may be applied, in combination with sieving techniques, to efficiently search for very large primes. This has allowed us to prove the primality of several integers with more than 100,000 decimal digits, the largest of which has more than a million bits in its binary representation. We believe that this is the largest proven prime N for which no significant partial factorization of N-1 or N+1 is known.

Files available: paper (PDF), slides

© 2011-12 Kiran S. Kedlaya (with thanks to Pierrick Gaudry and Emmanuel Thomé)
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