# 2-adic roots (Re: bdiv vs redc)

Niels Möller nisse at lysator.liu.se
Tue Jul 24 16:03:50 CEST 2012

Torbjorn Granlund <tg at gmplib.org> writes:

> Used for computing x^3 mod B^n. It is really a very plain Newton
> iteration being used here.

I see. I think the "right" way to compute the iteration

x <-- x - x (a x^2 - 1) / 2

is as follows. Let the current x have \ell bits.

1. Compute the square x^2. Use wraparound, since the lowest \ell bits were
computed in the same step in the previous iteration.

2. Compute a x^2. Use wraparound, since the low \ell bits are 0, ...,0,
1. Shift right, and ignore the low zero limbs. Denote the result as

B^z e = (a x^2 - 1) / 2

3. Compute x e (mod 2^{2\ell} / B^z]). This is balanced (almost) plain
mullo.

4. Subtract x -= B^z x e, extending the precision of x from \ell bits to
2\ell - 2. We could simplify the final subtraction (which is mostly a
negation) if we negate a up front, really using a newton iteration
converging to (-a)^{-1/2} (mod increasing powers of two).

> I suppose one should for common k improve the starting value from 1 bit
> to a few bits, and for any k iterate in mp_limb_t variables until
> getting a full word of precision (using a fully unrolled loop).

For square root I think the most practical is to tabulate square roots
mod 2^10 (using a table with only 2^7 entries), and then iterate 10 ->
18 -> 34 -> 66. I don't think it is of much use to use a larger table
unless we go up to 2^14 or 2^15 entries.

I also think tabulating small kth roots for arbitrary (odd) k is
practical, since only the low bits of k matter, but I haven't yet looked
into the details.

Regards,
/Niels

--
Niels Möller. PGP-encrypted email is preferred. Keyid C0B98E26.
Internet email is subject to wholesale government surveillance.