Paper 2006/240 Original: eprint.iacr.org/2006/240 ↗

Computing Zeta Functions of Nondegenerate Curves

Abstract

In this paper we present a $p$-adic algorithm to compute the zeta function of a nondegenerate curve over a finite field using Monsky-Washnitzer cohomology. The paper vastly generalizes previous work since all known cases, e.g. hyperelliptic, superelliptic and $C_{ab}$ curves, can be transformed to fit the nondegenerate case. For curves with a fixed Newton polytope, the property of being nondegenerate is generic, so that the algorithm works for almost all curves with given Newton polytope. For a genus $g$ curve over $\FF_{p^n}$, the expected running time is $\widetilde{O}(n^3 g^6 + n^2 g^{6.5})$, whereas the space complexity amounts to $\widetilde{O}(n^3 g^4)$, assuming $p$ is fixed.