On the complexity of factoring bivariate . . .

We present algorithms that compute the linear and quadratic factors of supersparse (lacunary) bivariate polynomials over the rational numbers in polynomial-time in the input size. In supersparse polynomials, the term degrees can have hundreds of digits as binary numbers. Our algorithms are Monte Carlo randomized for quadratic factors and deterministic for linear factors. Our approach relies on the results by H. W. Lenstra, Jr., on computing factors of univariate supersparse polynomials over the rational numbers. Furthermore, we show that the problem of determining the irreducibility of a supersparse bivariate polynomial over a large finite field of any characteristic is co-NP-hard via randomized reductions. Categories and Subject Descriptor