English

About the Kannan-Bachem algorithm

Data Structures and Algorithms 2024-11-06 v1

Abstract

The Smith reduction is a basic tool when analyzing integer matrices up to equivalence, and the Kannan-Bachem (KB) algorithm is the first polynomial algorithm computing such a reduction. Using this algorithm in complicated situations where the rank of the studied matrix is not maximal revealed an unexpected obstacle in the algorithm. This difficulty is described, analyzed, a simple solution is given to overcome it, finally leading to a general organization of the KB algorithm, simpler than the original one, efficient and having a general scope.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2411.02422,
  title  = {About the Kannan-Bachem algorithm},
  author = {Francis Sergeraert},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2411.02422},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

An equivalent algorithm is used by the Magma program, without any detailed explanation, without any reference. The present text could so be useful

R2 v1 2026-06-28T19:47:52.646Z