21. Factoring Numbers
We will describe several methods for factoring. The
first of these is kind of fun, but not the best possible, since it becomes
hopeless to use if for factoring numbers above say 1050 and probably
less; it takes a number of steps of the order of N1/4 to factor N,
and the steps are not very simple, though not hard in principle. This method is
based on iterating a function, mod N.
There are two more serious methods which we will
discuss some in the next section. One, the more prosaic of the two, is called
the quadratic sieve. The other is based on raising an initial element of a
strange group to increasing factorial powers in that group, mod N. The group is
that associated with an elliptic curve, as we shall see. Strangely enough these
methods have similar expected performance, but the quadratic sieve is easier to
apportion to a network of different computers.
1. The Function Iteration or
Cycle Method for Factoring
Suppose N=pq,
and we seek to factor N.
The idea of the method is we will choose a random
starting integer and choose a polynomial function of it. We will then iterate
this function.
Suppose you iterate a polynomial function, which
means start with x, form f(x) then f(f(x)) and f(f(f(x))) and so on
(wonderfully well adapted to do on a spreadsheet!) and you do it mod N. By the
Chinese Remainder theorem you can think of what is happening mod p and mod q
separately.
And what will happen, say, mod p? Well you will
start from x, move to say, x1, then x2 and so on, and so
wander around mod p, for a while what seems like randomly. Then at some point
you will reach a value, xj you had reached
previously, and then you will cycle around following your previous itinerary,
because once you are at a point you had previously visited, your next
destination will be the same as it was last time you were there. (our wandering seems random but is actually completely
determined by our function f.
This
raises two questions. How long will you have to wander until this happens, that
is, until you start cycling?
And
how can we use this nonsense to factor N?
The answer to the first question is we can expect to
return to a previously attained value in a number of steps that is of the order
of (p)1/2. (Why? Suppose we were
actually wandering at random, so that at each step we have probability 1/p of
reaching any value mod p. We could then compute the probability that we do not
hit a value we had reached before.
After k steps it will be
∏kj=1 (1-(j/p)).
Because
if we have not already done so, after k-1 steps we will have been at k
different places out of a total of p of them.
This
is exactly the product we encounter with the famous ‘birthday surprise’ and by
taking logs and expanding we can find it looks like
exp( -k*(k-1)/(2*p)).
So
within a number of steps of at most the order of k2ln(k)/p
it will become highly probable that we will have reached a place we had visited
already.
And
now what can we do with this fact?
We
will create a tortoise and a hare. They will start from the same starting point
mod N. The tortoise will iterate the function once on each turn. The hare will
iterate it twice on each turn. And now observe that once they are both inside
the cycle, the hare will move one closer to the tortoise on each step, and will
catch up with it at some step, mod p.
And
then we have a winner! What we can do is at each step, look at the difference
between the hare's value and the tortoise's value, and apply
When
the hare and the tortoise are at the same value mod p (and not mod q) the
difference will be 0 mod p (but not mod N), and will therefore be a multiple of
p. When we find its gcd with N, which
Can
this procedure fail? Yes, in two ways. One, we could get a tortoise-hare
difference of 0 mod p and mod q at exactly the same step, in which case we get
nothing. Or we could be very unlucky and have to iterate much more than we
expect to get equality mod p.
If
either of these things seem to be happening, we can
choose a different start or a different function to iterate.
Is
all this doable? It is practically trivial to iterate a function on a
spreadsheet. Euclid's algorithm is easy to implement also, If the two starts
are next to each other with the bigger one to the left you can enter to the
right of the right one =mod(one on left, one on right) and copy to the right a
healthy distance. At some start you will get to 0, and the gcd
you seek will be the entry just before you get to 0. So enter N to the left, and your hare tortoise difference on the right and
copy this until you find the gcd.
Let's
do an example
For
function we try x2 + x +1. For start we choose 1
Now
let us pick a number to factor. Say 4097003. Enter it in A1
We
put our start say in A2 and in B2 put =A2
In
c2 we put =mod(b2*b2+b2+1,$a$1) and in A3 put
=mod(a2*a2+a2+1,$a$1) and in b3 put =mod(c2*c2+c2+1,$a%1)
Now
we copy a3 and b3 down a couple of hundred rows, and do the same for c2.
Notice
that column A iterates our function once in each row, while column B (or C)
iterates twice in each row.
Now
if in column D everywhere we put =A$1 and in E2 (and copy down) put =abs(b2-a2) we are ready to to
start
This
can be accomplished with one instruction, put in f2 and copied down and to the
right, as far as needed. The instruction is =mod(d2,e2).
What
will happen is we will
When
hare has caught up to tortoise mod p and not mod q this will spit out a factor
of N.
Notice
that we can change our start by changing A2 and can try to factor a different N
simply by changing A1.
Here
is an example worked out though with different columns. The function used is x2+x+1 and the start is 11. We have cut off the spreadsheet on the right
so that it fits on the page. Notice that 89 appears in
the 8th row counting from the start, and 139 in the 12th.
A |
B |
C |
D |
E |
F |
G |
H |
I |
J |
K |
12371 |
X2+X+1 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
11 |
11 |
133 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
133 |
5452 |
2244 |
12371 |
5319 |
1733 |
120 |
53 |
14 |
11 |
3 |
5452 |
2784 |
9195 |
12371 |
2668 |
1699 |
969 |
730 |
239 |
13 |
5 |
2244 |
1436 |
9947 |
12371 |
808 |
251 |
55 |
31 |
24 |
7 |
3 |
2784 |
9499 |
6427 |
12371 |
6715 |
5656 |
1059 |
361 |
337 |
24 |
1 |
9195 |
5988 |
10975 |
12371 |
3207 |
2750 |
457 |
8 |
1 |
0 |
#DIV/0! |
1436 |
5174 |
4607 |
12371 |
3738 |
1157 |
267 |
89 |
0 |
#DIV/0! |
#DIV/0! |
9947 |
421 |
4469 |
12371 |
9526 |
2845 |
991 |
863 |
128 |
95 |
33 |
9499 |
9637 |
12310 |
12371 |
138 |
89 |
49 |
40 |
9 |
4 |
1 |
6427 |
3661 |
8790 |
12371 |
2766 |
1307 |
152 |
91 |
61 |
30 |
1 |
5988 |
3625 |
6249 |
12371 |
2363 |
556 |
139 |
0 |
#DIV/0! |
#DIV/0! |
#DIV/0! |
10975 |
1004 |
6970 |
12371 |
9971 |
2400 |
371 |
174 |
23 |
13 |
10 |
5174 |
6954 |
6832 |
12371 |
1780 |
1691 |
89 |
0 |
#DIV/0! |
#DIV/0! |
#DIV/0! |
If you want to avoid all the DIV/0!'s, you can add an if to the
statement implementing Euclid's
algorithm: if(e2>0,mod(d2,e2),0). This will cause the row to alternate 0's
and the gcd.
This
method has the drawback that it expects to take time of the order of N1/4
when N is the product of two roughly equal primes.
This is not good enough for modern applications.