Fast Computation of Smith Forms of Sparse Matrices Over Local Rings

Abstract: We present algorithms to compute the Smith Normal Form of matrices over two families of local rings. The algorithms use the \emph{black-box} model which is suitable for sparse and structured matrices. The algorithms depend on a number of tools, such as matrix rank computation over finite fields, for which the best-known time- and memory-efficient algorithms are probabilistic. For an $\nxn$ matrix $A$ over the ring $\Fzfe$, where $f<sup>e$ is a power of an irreducible polynomial $f \in \Fz$ of degree $d$, our algorithm requires $\bigO(\eta de<sup>2n)$ operations in $\F$, where our black-box is assumed to require $\bigO(\eta)$ operations in $\F$ to compute a matrix-vector product by a vector over $\Fzfe$ (and $\eta$ is assumed greater than $\Pden$). The algorithm only requires additional storage for $\bigO(\Pden)$ elements of $\F$. In particular, if $\eta=\softO(\Pden)$, then our algorithm requires only $\softO(n<sup>2d<sup>2e<sup>3)$ operations in $\F$, which is an improvement on known dense methods for small $d$ and $e$. For the ring $\ZZ/p<sup>e\ZZ$, where $p$ is a prime, we give an algorithm which is time- and memory-efficient when the number of nontrivial invariant factors is small. We describe a method for dimension reduction while preserving the invariant factors. The time complexity is essentially linear in $\mu n r e \log p,$ where $\mu$ is the number of operations in $\ZZ/p\ZZ$ to evaluate the black-box (assumed greater than $n$) and $r$ is the total number of non-zero invariant factors. To avoid the practical cost of conditioning, we give a Monte Carlo certificate, which at low cost, provides either a high probability of success or a proof of failure. The quest for a time- and memory-efficient solution without restrictions on the number of nontrivial invariant factors remains open. We offer a conjecture which may contribute toward that end.