Finite Fields And Their Applications

This book is devoted entirely to the theory of finite fields.

Introduction to the theory of finite fields and to some of their many applications. The first chapter is devoted to the theory of finite fields. After covering their construction and elementary properties, the authors discuss the trace and norm functions, bases for finite fields, and properties of polynomials over finite fields. Chapter 2 deals with combinatorial topics such as the construction of sets of orthogonal Latin squares, affine and projective planes, block designs, and Hadamard matrices. Chapters 3 and 4 provide a number of constructions and basic properties of error-correcting codes and cryptographic systems using finite fields. Appendix A provides a brief review of the basic number theory and abstract algebra used in the text. Appendix B provides hints and partial solutions for many of the exercises in each chapter.--From publisher description.

Presents an introduction to the theory of finite fields and some of its most important applications.

Poised to become the leading reference in the field, the Handbook of Finite Fields is exclusively devoted to the theory and applications of finite fields. More than 80 international contributors compile state-of-the-art research in this definitive handbook. Edited by two renowned researchers, the book uses a uniform style and format throughout and

This book is based on the invited talks of the "RICAM-Workshop on Finite Fields and Their Applications: Character Sums and Polynomials" held at the Federal Institute for Adult Education (BIfEB) in Strobl, Austria, from September 2-7, 2012. Finite fields play important roles in many application areas such as coding theory, cryptography, Monte Carlo and quasi-Monte Carlo methods, pseudorandom number generation, quantum computing, and wireless communication. In this book we will focus on sequences, character sums, and polynomials over finite fields in view of the above mentioned application areas: Chapters 1 and 2 deal with sequences mainly constructed via characters and analyzed using bounds on character sums. Chapters 3, 5, and 6 deal with polynomials over finite fields. Chapters 4 and 9 consider problems related to coding theory studied via finite geometry and additive combinatorics, respectively. Chapter 7 deals with quasirandom points in view of applications to numerical integration using quasi-Monte Carlo methods and simulation. Chapter 8 studies aspects of iterations of rational functions from which pseudorandom numbers for Monte Carlo methods can be derived. The goal of this book is giving an overview of several recent research directions as well as stimulating research in sequences and polynomials under the unified framework of character theory.

The theory of finite fields, whose origins can be traced back to the works of Gauss and Galois, has played a part in various branches in mathematics. Inrecent years we have witnessed a resurgence of interest in finite fields, and this is partly due to important applications in coding theory and cryptography. The purpose of this book is to introduce the reader to some of these recent developments. It should be of interest to a wide range of students, researchers and practitioners in the disciplines of computer science, engineering and mathematics. We shall focus our attention on some specific recent developments in the theory and applications of finite fields. While the topics selected are treated in some depth, we have not attempted to be encyclopedic. Among the topics studied are different methods of representing the elements of a finite field (including normal bases and optimal normal bases), algorithms for factoring polynomials over finite fields, methods for constructing irreducible polynomials, the discrete logarithm problem and its implications to cryptography, the use of elliptic curves in constructing public key cryptosystems, and the uses of algebraic geometry in constructing good error-correcting codes. To limit the size of the volume we have been forced to omit some important applications of finite fields. Some of these missing applications are briefly mentioned in the Appendix along with some key references.

The volume covers wide-ranging topics from Theory: structure of finite fields, normal bases, polynomials, function fields, APN functions. Computation: algorithms and complexity, polynomial factorization, decomposition and irreducibility testing, sequences and functions. Applications: algebraic coding theory, cryptography, algebraic geometry over finite fields, finite incidence geometry, designs, combinatorics, quantum information science.

This book is mainly devoted to some computational and algorithmic problems in finite fields such as, for example, polynomial factorization, finding irreducible and primitive polynomials, the distribution of these primitive polynomials and of primitive points on elliptic curves, constructing bases of various types and new applications of finite fields to other areas of mathematics. For completeness we in clude two special chapters on some recent advances and applications of the theory of congruences (optimal coefficients, congruential pseudo-random number gener ators, modular arithmetic, etc.) and computational number theory (primality testing, factoring integers, computation in algebraic number theory, etc.). The problems considered here have many applications in Computer Science, Cod ing Theory, Cryptography, Numerical Methods, and so on. There are a few books devoted to more general questions, but the results contained in this book have not till now been collected under one cover. In the present work the author has attempted to point out new links among different areas of the theory of finite fields. It contains many very important results which previously could be found only in widely scattered and hardly available conference proceedings and journals. In particular, we extensively review results which originally appeared only in Russian, and are not well known to mathematicians outside the former USSR.