Paul Zimmermann (born 13 November 1964) is a

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

computational mathematician, working at

INRIA The National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology (Inria) () is a French national research institution focusing on computer science and applied mathematics. It was created under the name ''Institut de recherche en informatiq ...

. Zimmermann co-authored the book Computational Mathematics with SageMath used by Mathematical students worldwide. His interests include asymptotically fast arithmetic—he wrote a book on algorithms for

computer arithmetic In computing, an arithmetic logic unit (ALU) is a combinational digital circuit that performs arithmetic and bitwise operations on integer binary numbers. This is in contrast to a floating-point unit (FPU), which operates on floating point numb ...

with Richard Brent. He has developed some of the fastest available code for manipulating

polynomials In mathematics, a polynomial is an expression consisting of indeterminates (also called variables) and coefficients, that involves only the operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and positive-integer powers of variables. An example ...

over

GF(2) (also denoted \mathbb F_2, or \mathbb Z/2\mathbb Z) is the finite field of two elements (GF is the initialism of ''Galois field'', another name for finite fields). Notations and \mathbb Z_2 may be encountered although they can be confused with ...

, and for calculating hypergeometric constants to billions of decimal places. He is associated with the CARAMEL project to develop efficient arithmetic, in a general context and in particular in the context of

algebraic curve In mathematics, an affine algebraic plane curve is the zero set of a polynomial in two variables. A projective algebraic plane curve is the zero set in a projective plane of a homogeneous polynomial in three variables. An affine algebraic plane ...

s of small

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

; arithmetic on polynomials of very large degree turns out to be useful in

algorithm In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specifications for performing ...

s for point-counting on such curves. He is also interested in computational number theory. In particular, he has contributed to some of the record computations in

integer factorisation In number theory, integer factorization is the decomposition of a composite number into a product of smaller integers. If these factors are further restricted to prime numbers, the process is called prime factorization. When the numbers are su ...

and discrete logarithm. He has been an active developer of the GMP-ECM implementation of the

elliptic curve In mathematics, an elliptic curve is a smooth, projective, algebraic curve of genus one, on which there is a specified point . An elliptic curve is defined over a field and describes points in , the Cartesian product of with itself. If ...

method for

and of MPFR, an arbitrary precision floating point library with correct rounding. He is also a coauthor of the CADO-NFS software tool, which was used to factor RSA-240 in record time. In a 2014 blog post, Zimmermann said that he would refuse invitations to review papers submitted to gold (author-pays)

open access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 definition), or libre o ...

and hybrid open access journals, because he disagrees with the publication mechanism.

References

External links

* http://www.loria.fr/~zimmerma/ Living people 1964 births French mathematicians Free software people Free software programmers GNU people {{france-mathematician-stub