Pollard's kangaroo algorithm: Difference between revisions

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In mathematics, specifically [[computational number theory]] and [[computational algebra]], '''Pollard's lambda algorithm''' (aka '''Pollard's kangaroo algorithm''', see [[#Naming|Naming]] below) is an [[algorithm]] for solving the [[discrete logarithm problem]]. The algorithm was introductedintroduced in 1978 by the accomplished number theorist J. M. Pollard, in the same paper <ref>J. Pollard, ''Monte Carlo methods for index computation mod p'', Mathematics of Computation, Volume 32, 1978</ref> as his better-known [[Pollard's rho algorithm for logarithms|rho algorithm]] for solving the same problem. Although Pollard described the application of his algorithm to the discrete logarithm problem in the multiplicative group of units modulo a prime <math>''p</math>'', the algorithmit is in fact a generic discrete logarithm algorithm -&ndash; it will work in any finite cyclic group.

==The algorithm==