The generation of random numbers that are probably prime

Abstract

In this paper we make two observations on Rabin's probabilistic primality test. The first is a provocative reason why Rabin's test is so good. It turned out that a single iteration has a nonnegligible probability of failing only on composite numbers that can actually be split in expected polynomial time. Therefore, factoring would be easy if Rabin's test systematically failed with a 25% probability on each composite integer (which, of course, it does not). The second observation is more fundamental because it is not restricted to primality testing: it has consequences for the entire field of probabilistic algorithms. The failure probability when using a probabilistic algorithm for the purpose of testing some property is compared with that when using it for the purpose of obtaining a random element hopefully having this property. More specifically, we investigate the question of how reliable Rabin's test is when used to generate a random integer that is probably prime, rather than to test a specific integer for primality. © 1988 International Association for Cryptologic Research.