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The quadratic sieve attempts to find pairs of integers x and y(x) (where y(x) is a function of x) satisfying a much weaker condition than x 2 ≡ y 2 (mod n). It selects a set of primes called the factor base , and attempts to find x such that the least absolute remainder of y ( x ) = x 2 mod n factorizes completely over the factor base.
The principle of the number field sieve (both special and general) can be understood as an improvement to the simpler rational sieve or quadratic sieve. When using such algorithms to factor a large number n, it is necessary to search for smooth numbers (i.e. numbers with small prime factors) of order n 1/2.
Prime decomposition of n = 864 as 2 5 × 3 3. By the fundamental theorem of arithmetic, every positive integer has a unique prime factorization. (By convention, 1 is the empty product.) Testing whether the integer is prime can be done in polynomial time, for example, by the AKS primality test. If composite, however, the polynomial time tests ...
The sieve methods discussed in this article are not closely related to the integer factorization sieve methods such as the quadratic sieve and the general number field sieve. Those factorization methods use the idea of the sieve of Eratosthenes to determine efficiently which members of a list of numbers can be completely factored into small primes.
The primary improvement that quadratic sieve makes over Fermat's factorization method is that instead of simply finding a square in the sequence of , it finds a subset of elements of this sequence whose product is a square, and it does this in a highly efficient manner.
Dixon's method is based on finding a congruence of squares modulo the integer N which is intended to factor. Fermat's factorization method finds such a congruence by selecting random or pseudo-random x values and hoping that the integer x 2 mod N is a perfect square (in the integers):
The second-fastest is the multiple polynomial quadratic sieve, and the fastest is the general number field sieve. The Lenstra elliptic-curve factorization is named after Hendrik Lenstra . Practically speaking, ECM is considered a special-purpose factoring algorithm, as it is most suitable for finding small factors.
In number theory, a branch of mathematics, the special number field sieve (SNFS) is a special-purpose integer factorization algorithm. The general number field sieve (GNFS) was derived from it. The special number field sieve is efficient for integers of the form r e ± s , where r and s are small (for instance Mersenne numbers ).