Re: factoring polynomials modulo non-prime

[William F Hammond <hammond@csc.albany.edu>]

Karim Belabas <Karim.Belabas@math.u-bordeaux1.fr> writes in part:

> . . .
> For your specific example (modulus = 32), it is easy to detect that the
> the modulus is composite. But, in general, it is at least as costly to check
> (let alone prove) primality of N, than it is to factor a polynomial of degree
> O(1) over the finite field with N elements:

I'm confused.  The finite field with 32 elements is not the integers
mod 32.   ???

                                    -- Bill