The van Hoeij algorithm for factoring polynomials

Abstract

In this survey, we report about a new algorithm for factoring polynomials due to Mark van Hoeij. The main idea is that the combinatorial problem that occurs in the Zassenhaus algorithm is reduced to a very special knapsack problem. In case of rational polynomials, this knapsack problem can be very efficiently solved by the LLL algorithm. This gives a polynomial time algorithm, which also works very well in practice.