Abstract

A new proof is given for the correctness of the powers of two descent method for computing discrete logarithms. The result is slightly stronger than the original work, but more importantly we provide a unified geometric argument, eliminating the need to analyse all possible subgroups of ${PGL}_2\left({\mathbb{F}}_q\right)$. Our approach sheds new light on the role of ${PGL}_2$, in the hope to eventually lead to a complete proof that discrete logarithms can be computed in quasipolynomial time in finite fields of fixed characteristic.

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Mathematical Subject Classification 2010

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