Parallel Algorithms for Polynomials

本研究计画系关于设计与实作数学公式运算之演算法。它专注于计算多个变量的大型多项式和涉及代数数的大型公式，如sqrt（2）和代数函数和sqrt（1+y^2）。这样的公式出现在科学、工程和数学中的许多应用中。这项研究是计算机代数领域的一部分。它也被称为符号计算。该领域的研究人员设计算法和软件系统，称为计算机代数系统，用于在计算机上进行代数和微积分。像Maple和Mathematica这样的计算机代数系统被工业界和学术界的科学家，工程师和数学家用于他们的工作。该提案的研究人员一直并将继续参与加拿大产品Maple的设计和开发。该提案的一个重点是并行算法的开发和实现。这是因为今天的笔记本电脑，台式机和服务器都是多核计算机，现在提高软件性能的唯一方法是利用它们的多核处理能力。我们建议使用Cilk实现并行算法。Cilk是在麻省理工学院开发的，现在已经被英特尔采用。我们还建议开始试验使用图形处理单元（GPU）来实现算法。研究的第二个焦点是如何插值，即如何从多项式和有理函数的值重构多个变量的多项式和有理函数。通常，涉及许多变量的公式是稀疏的，并且具有结构。我们建议尝试自动检测这种结构，这样我们就可以快速插入它们。我们在这项研究中开发的一些软件将用Maple编写，一些将用C和/或Cilk编写。我们确实计划将其提供给Maple用户社区，以便科学家，工程师和数学家可以使用它。对于从事这些项目的学生来说，看到其他人使用他们的软件是非常令人鼓舞的。谁在这个建议的研究项目工作的学生将学习如何设计和实现算法，解决计算数学中的各种问题，如因子分解多项式和快速算法解决涉及矩阵的问题。他们将学习如何使用Cilk设计和实现并行算法。他们将学习数学（例如代数数）和计算机科学（例如如何分析算法的效率）。

This research proposal is about designing and implementing algorithms for computing with mathematical formulas. It focusses on computing with large polynomials in more than one variable and with large formulas involving algebraic numbers like sqrt(2) and algebraic functions and sqrt(1+y^2). Such formulas arise in many applications in Science, Engineering and Mathematics. This research is part of a field known as Computer Algebra. It is also known as Symbolic Computation. Researchers in this field design algorithms and software systems, called Computer Algebra Systems, for doing algebra and calculus on the computer. Computer Algebra Systems like Maple and Mathematica are used by Scientists, Engineers and Mathematicians in both industry and academia for their work. The researcher on this proposal has been and continues to be involved with the design and development of Maple which is a Canadian product. A focus of the proposal is the development and implementation of parallel algorithms. This is because today's laptops, desktops and servers are all multi-core computers and the only way now to improve performance of software is to exploit their multi-core processing capability. We propose to use Cilk for implementing parallel algorithms. Cilk was developed at MIT and has now been adopted by Intel. We also propose to begin experimenting with using Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) for implementing algorithms. A second focus of the research is how to interpolate, that is, how to reconstruct polynomials and rational functions in more than one variable from their values. Often formulas involving many variables are sparse and have structure. We propose to try to automate the detection of this structure so we can interpolate them rapidly. Some of the software we develop in this research will be written in Maple and some will be written in C and/or Cilk. We do plan to make it available to the Maple user community so that Scientists, Engineers and Mathematicians can use it. For the students working on these projects, it is very encouraging for them to see other people using their software. Students who work on the research projects in this proposal will learn how to design and implement algorithms for solving various problems in computational mathematics like factoring polynomials and fast algorithms for solving problems involving matrices. They will learn how to design and implement parallel algorithms using Cilk. They will be learning mathematics (e.g. about algebraic numbers) and computer science (e.g. how to analyze the efficiency of algorithms.)