Arithmetic with algebraic numbers

For algebraic numbers $x$ and $y$ given by minimal polynomials $P$ and $Q$ and isolating balls (see Algebraic numbers by minimal polynomial and isolating ball), the number $w = x \circ y$ for $\circ \in \{+, -, \times, /\}$ is again algebraic, and qqbar.h computes its minimal polynomial and an isolating ball. Operations with a rational operand are affine substitutions $P((t - b)/a)$ and cost little (qqbar_scalar_op). What follows is about two irrational operands, which are handled by qqbar_binary_op. Its default strategy, classical since Loos [Loo1983], computes a polynomial of degree $\deg x \deg y$ that annihilates $w$, factors it and selects the right factor; the other strategies avoid this factorisation, which is the bottleneck when the composed polynomial has many factors.

Composed polynomials#

Let $P$ have roots $a_1, \ldots, a_m$ and $Q$ roots $b_1, \ldots, b_n$. The composed sum and composed product

have degree $mn$ and vanish at $x + y$ and $xy$. Differences and quotients reduce to these by replacing $Q(t)$ by $Q(-t)$ (roots $-b_j$) or by its reversal $t^n Q(1/t)$ (roots $1/b_j$). Up to the factor $L = \operatorname{lc}(P)^n \operatorname{lc}(Q)^m$ they are resultants, $L \cdot (P \oplus Q)(t) = \operatorname{Res}_s(P(s), Q(t - s))$, and therefore have integer coefficients after multiplication by $L$. Instead of a resultant, FLINT computes them with power sums, following Bostan, Flajolet, Salvy and Schost [BFSS2006].

The power sums of the composed polynomials are obtained from those of $P$ and $Q$:

The first is a termwise (Hadamard) product of the power sum series; the second says that the exponential generating functions $\sum_k p_k t^k / k!$ multiply. Hence qqbar_fmpz_poly_composed_op computes the first $mn + 1$ power sums of $P$ and $Q$ by a power series division, combines them by a termwise product or by a product of exponential generating functions (multiplying by factorials before and after, a Borel transform), and recovers the composed polynomial by a power series exponential, all with fmpq_poly arithmetic. With fast multiplication this costs $O(M(mn))$ arithmetic operations on rational numbers, although the coefficients grow to about $mn$ times the size of those of $P$ and $Q$.

When $x$ and $y$ are distinct roots of the same irreducible $P$ of degree $d$, for example complex conjugates, $P \oplus P$ has the factor $\prod_i (t - 2a_i)$ and every root $a_i + a_j$ with $i \ne j$ twice, so a polynomial of half the degree suffices. qqbar_fmpz_poly_symmetric_composed_op computes the polynomials of degree $d(d-1)/2$ with roots $a_i + a_j$, $a_i a_j$ or $(a_i - a_j)^2$ for $i < j$ from the power sums

and the even part of the exponential generating function $E(t) E(-t)$ for $(a_i - a_j)^2$, where $E(t) = \sum p_k t^k/k!$. The difference $x - y$ is then a root of $V(t^2)$, where $V$ is the minimal polynomial of $(x - y)^2$.

Selecting the factor#

The minimal polynomial of $w$ is an irreducible factor of the composed polynomial $H$, which is factored over $\mathbb{Z}$ (see Factoring polynomials over the integers). _qqbar_binary_op_select_factor then computes a ball $W$ containing $w$ from the enclosures of $x$ and $y$ and evaluates every irreducible factor $f_k$ on $W$. Distinct irreducible polynomials have no common root, so at most one $f_k$ vanishes at $w$, and as the enclosures of $x$ and $y$ are refined (at doubling precision) the values of all other factors on $W$ eventually exclude zero. When exactly one factor has a value containing zero and Theorem 1 of Algebraic numbers by minimal polynomial and isolating ball certifies that $W$ isolates a root of it, that factor is the minimal polynomial and the certified ball is the enclosure of $w$.

Quadratic operands#

If both operands are quadratic, $x = a_1 + b_1 \sqrt{D_1}$ and $y = a_2 + b_2 \sqrt{D_2}$ with rational $a_k, b_k$ and principal square roots, the result lies in $\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{D_1}, \sqrt{D_2})$, which is a quadratic field if $D_1 D_2$ is a square and a biquadratic field otherwise. Its minimal polynomial is written down in closed form, of degree at most 2 or 4; no factorisation is needed.

If only $y = a + b\sqrt{D}$ is quadratic and $\deg x = d \ge 3$, then $x = L(w)$ for a polynomial $L$ of degree 1 with coefficients in $K = \mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{D})$ (for example $L(z) = z - y$ for $w = x + y$). Write $G(z) = P(L(z)) = U(z) + \sqrt{D} V(z)$ with $U, V \in \mathbb{Q}[z]$. The norm $H = U^2 - D V^2 = G \overline{G}$ has degree $2d$ and rational coefficients and vanishes at $w$.

The hypothesis is certified modularly. Choose a prime $p$, not dividing $2D \operatorname{lc}(P) \operatorname{lc}(H)$, such that $P \bmod p$ is squarefree and has an irreducible factor of odd degree $f$, $D$ is a quadratic nonresidue modulo $p$, and $H \bmod p$ is squarefree of full degree. Since $P \bmod p$ is squarefree, $p$ divides neither the discriminant of $P$ nor the index of $\mathbb{Z}[x]$ in the ring of integers of $\mathbb{Q}(x)$, so by Dedekind's theorem [Neu1999, I.8.3] the factor of degree $f$ corresponds to a prime $\mathfrak{p}$ of $\mathbb{Q}(x)$ with residue field $\mathbb{F}_{p^f}$. If $\sqrt{D}$ were in $\mathbb{Q}(x)$, its reduction modulo $\mathfrak{p}$ would be a square root of $D$ in $\mathbb{F}_{p^f}$; but a nonresidue modulo $p$ remains a nonsquare in an extension of odd degree. Hence $\sqrt{D} \notin \mathbb{Q}(x)$, and $H$, being squarefree modulo $p$, is squarefree and by Lemma 2 irreducible: it is the minimal polynomial of $w$ (made primitive). If no such prime is found among a few candidates, $H$ is factored. Either way, the factorisation of a polynomial of degree $d^2$ or $2d^2$ is replaced by a polynomial of degree $2d$.

Operands in a common field#

The composed polynomial of degree $mn$ splits into many factors over $\mathbb{Z}$, and modulo every prime, when the Galois group of the compositum is small, for example when $y \in \mathbb{Q}(x)$ or when $x$ and $y$ are elements of a cyclotomic field. Then the factorisation, with its combinatorial recombination of modular factors, is very expensive, while the result can be computed by linear algebra in a field of degree about $\max(m, n)$. _qqbar_binary_op_structured detects and exploits three situations, once $mn$ (or $d(d-1)/2$ for conjugates) is at least 36.

One operand in the field of the other. Suppose $n \mid m$ and $y \in \mathbb{Q}(x)$, say $y = R(x)$ with $R \in \mathbb{Q}[t]$, $\deg R < m$. Then $w = h(x)$ with $h = t \circ R(t) \bmod P$ (using an extended GCD to invert $R$ modulo $P$ for division), and the minimal polynomial of $h(x)$ is the minimal polynomial of the matrix of multiplication by $h(x)$ on $\mathbb{Q}(x)$ with the basis $1, x, \ldots, x^{m-1}$, since a polynomial annihilates the matrix if and only if it annihilates $h(x)$. This is what qqbar_evaluate_fmpq_poly computes, followed by a numerical selection of the root. The polynomial $R$ is found with LLL [LLL1982] as an integer relation between $1, x, \ldots, x^{m-1}, y$ at increasing precision, and verified exactly with qqbar_equal_fmpq_poly_val, which checks $Q(R(x)) \equiv 0 \bmod P$. Since a failed LLL search is costly, a necessary condition is tested first: for a prime $p$ not dividing the leading coefficients and discriminants, the degrees of the irreducible factors of $P \bmod p$ are the residue degrees of the primes of $\mathbb{Q}(x)$ above $p$ (Dedekind's theorem), and if $y \in \mathbb{Q}(x)$ then $Q$ must have a root in each of the corresponding residue fields, two distinct roots if $P = Q$. This is checked for a few dozen primes.

A common cyclotomic field. If $x, y \in \mathbb{Q}(\zeta_\ell)$, every prime $p \equiv 1 \pmod \ell$ splits completely in $\mathbb{Q}(\zeta_\ell)$ [Was1997], so $P$ and $Q$ split into distinct linear factors modulo $p$. Candidate conductors $\ell \not\equiv 2 \pmod 4$ with $m \mid \varphi(\ell)$ and $n \mid \varphi(\ell)$ are enumerated in order of $\varphi(\ell)$ (up to $\varphi(\ell) \le 128$), and the first that passes this splitting test for primes $p \equiv 1 \pmod \ell$ (four of them) is taken. Then $x$ and $y$ are expressed with LLL as polynomials in $\zeta_\ell$, or for real operands in the basis $1, 2\cos(2\pi k/\ell)$ of the real subfield, which gives small coefficients for cyclotomic numbers; the expressions are verified exactly and combined by arithmetic in $\mathbb{Q}(\zeta_\ell)$.

Guessing the result. Alternatively, an integer relation $g$ between $1, w, \ldots, w^k$ for $k = d, d/2, d/4$ ($d = \max(m, n)$) is sought with LLL from a numerical value of $w$, and the identity $g(w) = 0$ is proved by evaluating $g(w)$ at a precision justified by the following bound.

Here $R$ is computed from root bounds for $P$ and $Q$ (fmpz_poly_bound_roots): their sum for addition and subtraction, their product for multiplication and division (with the bound for the reversed polynomial). The test needs a precision of about $k \log_2 |L| + (N - 1)(\log_2 \|g\|_1 + k \log_2 R)$ bits; before paying for it, $g(w)$ is checked at three times the LLL precision, which eliminates most spurious relations. If the test succeeds, $g$ is factored (it has degree $k$, much smaller than $N$) and the factor is selected as above.

These LLL searches can fail, and their cost grows with the precision. The implementation keeps a list of streams of attempts, one per method and lattice dimension, each with a doubling sequence of precisions, and always runs the cheapest next attempt according to a cost model for LLL, until the total cost exceeds a budget proportional to the estimated cost of the fallback (computing and factoring the composed polynomial). Without detected cyclotomic structure, relations with small coefficients are less likely and the budget is halved.

The complete strategy#

qqbar_binary_op tries, in order:

1. equal operands: $2x$, 0, $x^2$ or 1;
2. a quadratic operand: closed forms or certified norms (Quadratic operands);
3. for operands of equal degree at least 4: a rational result, guessed numerically with qqbar_guess at 128 bits and verified by the exact inverse operation (for example $x = t - y$ for a sum $t$), which is cheap since one operand is then rational;
4. structured methods within a cost budget (Operands in a common field);
5. distinct conjugates: the symmetric composed polynomial of half degree (Composed polynomials), factored;
6. otherwise: the composed polynomial, factored, and the factor selected numerically (Selecting the factor).

Powers $x^n$ are computed by evaluating $t^n$ at $x$ in $\mathbb{Q}(x)$, after checking for roots of unity, for principal roots of rational numbers, and for minimal polynomials of the form $P(t) = H(t^n)$, in which case $x^n$ is a root of $H$. Roots $x^{1/n}$ are computed by factoring $P(t^n)$ and selecting the principal root; Capelli's theorem [Sch2000] often certifies that $P(t^n)$ is irreducible, so that no factorisation is needed.

Use in FLINT#

• qqbar_add, qqbar_sub, qqbar_mul and qqbar_div handle rational operands with qqbar_scalar_op and call qqbar_binary_op otherwise; qqbar_re, qqbar_im and qqbar_abs2 combine $x$ with its conjugate and benefit from the symmetric composed polynomials.
• qqbar_fmpz_poly_composed_op and qqbar_fmpz_poly_symmetric_composed_op compute composed polynomials from power sums.
• qqbar_evaluate_fmpq_poly computes minimal polynomials of elements of $\mathbb{Q}(x)$ through multiplication matrices (nf_elem_rep_mat and fmpq_mat_minpoly).
• qqbar_express_in_field and qqbar_guess expose the LLL searches of Operands in a common field (see Simplification and closed forms).
• qqbar_evaluate_fmpz_mpoly and ca_get_qqbar evaluate larger expressions with these operations, under limits on degrees and sizes that bound the cost of the composed polynomials.

@misc{flint-doc-algorithms-exact-qqbar-arithmetic,
  author       = {{The FLINT team}},
  title        = {{Arithmetic with algebraic numbers}},
  howpublished = {FLINT: Fast Library for Number Theory, documentation, version 3.7.0-dev},
  year         = {2026},
  url          = {https://flintlib.org/doc/algorithms/exact/qqbar-arithmetic.html},
  note         = {Generated 2026-11-02}
}