Thread: Finite Field

What is meant by an element n is square in the finite field Fp.

Originally Posted by makenqau

What is meant by an element n is square in the finite field Fp.

What is the context? How is the fact that it is square used?

It could mean ` for some '. This `halves' the underlying multiplicative group (the underlying group is cyclic of even order, and so with a bit of work you can see that precisely half of your non-zero elements are squares).