A formalization of the Berlekamp-Zassenhaus factorization algorithm

Abstract

We formalize the Berlekamp–Zassenhaus algorithm for factoring square-free integer polynomials in Isabelle/HOL. We further adapt an existing formalization of Yun’s square-free factorization algorithm to integer polynomials, and thus provide an efficient and certified factorization algorithm for arbitrary univariate polynomials. The algorithm first performs a factorization in the prime field GF(p) and then performs computations in the ring of integers modulo pk, where both p and k are determined at runtime. Since a natural modeling of these structures via dependent types is not possible in Isabelle/HOL, we formalize the whole algorithm using Isabelle’s recent addition of local type definitions. Through experiments we verify that our algorithm factors polynomials of degree 100 within seconds.