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Can you factor polynomials over certain finite fields using Maple or Maxima, and if so, how?

Rodrigo de Azevedo
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flawr
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    What's the purpose of having a Maple category if all questions about Maple get flagged as off topic?? How could a Maple question possibly be more mathematical than this one?? – Carl Love Nov 09 '15 at 08:36
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    @CarlLove I agree. If Maple is off topic, why do we have a maple (and maxima) tag? And where else should we ask questions about mathematical software? – flawr Nov 09 '15 at 19:09
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    You guys put it on hold because it is apparently not about mathematics, within the scope defined in the help center May I cite the help center? What to ask here: (...) Software that mathematicians use (except Mathematica, which has its own Stack Exchange site). – flawr Nov 09 '15 at 19:11

1 Answers1

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In Maple, you can use Factor and mod, e.g. for factoring over $GF(7)$

Factor(x^2 + 3 x + 3) mod 7;

$$(x+6)(x+4)$$

For $GF(p^k)$, represented using a root of a polynomial of degree $k$ irreducible over $GF(p)$:

alias(alpha = RootOf(x^3 + 2));

Factor(x^4 + x^2 + 2*x + 2, alpha) mod 7;

$$(5 \alpha^2 + x + 1)(x+4)(6 \alpha^2 + x + 1)(3 \alpha^2 + x + 1)$$

Community
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Robert Israel
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