English

On Calculating Square Roots in GF(p)

Number Theory 2016-05-12 v3

Abstract

This article presents a new method for calculating square roots in GF(p) by exponentiating in GF(p^3) or equivalently modulo irreducible cubic polynomials. This algorithm is in some ways similar to the Cipolla-Lehmer algorithm which is based on exponentiating in GF(p^2). Another less well known square root algorithm based on quadratic sums is also given. In addition to this, several conjectures about the output of this GF(p^3) square root algorithm are mentioned.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1309.2831,
  title  = {On Calculating Square Roots in GF(p)},
  author = {David S. Knight},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1309.2831},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

18 pages; new section 5.2 on cubic reciprocity added

R2 v1 2026-06-22T01:24:55.032Z