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In elementary algebra, factoring a polynomial reduces the problem of finding its roots to finding the roots of the factors. Polynomials with coefficients in the integers or in a field possess the unique factorization property, a version of the fundamental theorem of arithmetic with prime numbers replaced by irreducible polynomials.
Modern algorithms and computers can quickly factor univariate polynomials of degree more than 1000 having coefficients with thousands of digits. [3] For this purpose, even for factoring over the rational numbers and number fields, a fundamental step is a factorization of a polynomial over a finite field.
Continuing this process until every factor is prime is called prime factorization; the result is always unique up to the order of the factors by the prime factorization theorem. To factorize a small integer n using mental or pen-and-paper arithmetic, the simplest method is trial division : checking if the number is divisible by prime numbers 2 ...
Polynomial factoring algorithms use basic polynomial operations such as products, divisions, gcd, powers of one polynomial modulo another, etc. A multiplication of two polynomials of degree at most n can be done in O(n 2) operations in F q using "classical" arithmetic, or in O(nlog(n) log(log(n)) ) operations in F q using "fast" arithmetic.
An optimal strategy for choosing these polynomials is not known; one simple method is to pick a degree d for a polynomial, consider the expansion of n in base m (allowing digits between −m and m) for a number of different m of order n 1/d, and pick f(x) as the polynomial with the smallest coefficients and g(x) as x − m.
For instance, the polynomial x 2 + 3x + 2 is an example of this type of trinomial with n = 1. The solution a 1 = −2 and a 2 = −1 of the above system gives the trinomial factorization: x 2 + 3x + 2 = (x + a 1)(x + a 2) = (x + 2)(x + 1). The same result can be provided by Ruffini's rule, but with a more complex and time-consuming process.
The formula for the difference of two squares can be used for factoring polynomials that contain the square of a first quantity minus the square of a second quantity. For example, the polynomial x 4 − 1 {\displaystyle x^{4}-1} can be factored as follows:
Fermat's factorization method, named after Pierre de Fermat, is based on the representation of an odd integer as the difference of two squares: =. That difference is algebraically factorable as (+) (); if neither factor equals one, it is a proper factorization of N.