Fermat primality test

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The Fermat primality test is a probabilistic test to determine if a number is probably prime.

Contents

[edit] Concept

Fermat's little theorem states that if p is prime and 1 \le a < p, then

a^{p-1} \equiv 1 \pmod{p}

If we want to test if p is prime, then we can pick random a's in the interval and see if the equality holds. If the equality does not hold for a value of a, then p is composite. If the equality does hold for many values of a, then we can say that p is probably prime, or a pseudoprime.

It might be in our tests that we do not pick any value for a such that the equality fails. Any a such that

a^{n-1} \equiv 1 \pmod{n}

when n is composite is known as a Fermat liar. If we do pick an a such that

a^{n-1} \not\equiv 1 \pmod{n}

then a is known as a Fermat witness for the compositeness of n.

[edit] Algorithm and running time

The algorithm can be written as follows:

Inputs: n: a value to test for primality; k: a parameter that determines the number of times to test for primality
Output: composite if n is composite, otherwise probably prime
repeat k times:
pick a randomly in the range (1, n − 1]
if an − 1 mod n ≠ 1 then return composite
return probably prime

Using fast algorithms for modular exponentiation, the running time of this algorithm is O(k × log2n × log log n × log log log n), where k is the number of times we test a random a, and n is the value we want to test for primality.

[edit] Flaws

There are certain values of n known as Carmichael numbers for which all values of a for which gcd(a,n)=1 are Fermat liars. Although Carmichael numbers are rare, there are enough of them that Fermat's primality test is often not used in favor of other primality tests such as Miller-Rabin and Solovay-Strassen.

In general, if n is not a Carmichael number then at least half of all

a\in(\mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z})^*

are Fermat witnesses. For proof of this, let a be a Fermat witness and a1, a2, ..., as be Fermat liars. Then

(a\cdot a_i)^{n-1} \equiv a^{n-1}\cdot a_i^{n-1} \equiv a^{n-1} \not\equiv 1\pmod{n}

and so all a × ai for i = 1, 2, ..., s are Fermat witnesses.

[edit] Usage

The encryption program PGP uses this primality test in its algorithms. The chance of PGP generating a Carmichael number is less than 1 in 1050, which is more than adequate for practical purposes.

[edit] References

v • d • e
Number-theoretic algorithms
Primality tests
Sieving algorithms
Integer factorization algorithms
Other algorithms
Italics indicate that algorithm is for numbers of special forms; bold indicates deterministic algorithm for primality tests.