Math ∩ Programming
- CKKS — Polynomials, the Canonical Embedding, and Encoding
Table of Contents In this tutorial series, I will introduce the CKKS homomorphic encryption scheme from the ground up, in rather intricate detail. Each article in this series corresponds to a pull request on a GitHub repository. The code for this article is in this pull request. Follow along by cloning the repository and checking out the code at the relevant commit. This first article will cover some of the mathematical background necessary in the formulation of the CKKS encryption scheme, specifically the polynomial ring used in the most basic version of CKKS, and the canonical embedding used to encode cleartext messages as plaintexts. - Deterministic Primality Testing for Limited Bit Width
Problem: Determine if a 32-bit number is prime (deterministically) Solution: (in C++) // Bases to test. Using the first 4 prime bases makes the test deterministic // for all 32-bit integers. See https://oeis.org/A014233. int64_t bases[] = {2, 3, 5, 7}; inline int countTrailingZeros(uint64_t n) { if (n == 0) return 64; return __builtin_ctzll(n); } int64_t modularExponentiation(int64_t base, int64_t exponent, int64_t modulus) { int64_t res = 1; int64_t b = base % modulus; int64_t e = exponent; while (e > 0) { if (e & 1) { // Doesn't overflow because we assume 32-bit integer inputs res = (res * b) % modulus; } b = (b * b) % modulus; e >>= 1; } return res; } bool isPrime(int64_t n) { if (n < 2) return false; if (n < 4) return true; if (! - The Irrational Decision—A Book Review
It’s the 5th annual April Cools! Here are my previous April Cools articles This year it’s a book review of Ben Recht’s book, The Irrational Decision: How We Gave Computers the Power to Choose For us, released Mar 10, 2026. The publishing industry has a stupid name for the subcategory of non-fiction book where a domain expert weaves factual evidence together into a story to try to convince you of their thesis: a “big idea” book. - Bicyclic Matrix-Matrix Multiplication in Fully Homomorphic Encryption
In an earlier article, I covered the basic technique for performing matrix-vector multiplication in fully homomorphic encryption (FHE), known as the Halevi-Shoup diagonal method. This article covers a more recent method for matrix-matrix multiplication known as the bicyclic method. The code implementing this method is in the same GitHub repository as the previous article, and the bicyclic method is in a file called bicyclic.py. The previous article linked above covers the general concepts behind “FHE packing,” which I will assume as background knowledge for this article: - Integer Set Library (ISL) - A Primer
Polyhedral optimization is a tool used in compilers for optimizing loop nests. While the major compilers that use this implement polyhedral optimizations from scratch,1 there is a generally-applicable open source C library called the Integer Set Library (ISL) that implements the core algorithms used in polyhedral optimization. This article gives an overview of a subset of ISL, mainly focusing on the representation of sets and relations and basic manipulations on them. - Frequently Asked Questions about FHE
I work on homomorphic encryption (HE or FHE for “fully” homomorphic encryption) and I have written a lot about it on this blog (see the relevant tag). This article is a collection of short answers to questions I see on various threads and news aggregators discussing FHE. Facts If a service uses FHE and can respond to encrypted queries, can’t the service see your query? How is it possible to operate on encrypted data without seeing it? - My Graduate Career in Math
Editor’s note: This essay was originally published on Medium on 2016-03-05. I have made minor edits in this republishing and added a few small retrospective notes. 2010–2011 (Year 0) I had just switched my major at Cal Poly State University from computer science to math. I wanted to double major but California was in a budget crisis and a few weeks before I tried submitting my double-major request the Provost for the CSU system put a blanket ban on double majors. - Does Baby Have Hat
It’s April Cools! Last year I wrote about parenting, in 2023 about friendship bracelets. and in 2022 about cocktails. This year it’s a bit of a meandering stroll through some ideas around mutual aid and self-reliance. Maternity wards If you walk around the maternity ward at Kaiser Permanente’s Sunnyside medical center outside of Portland, Oregon, you might notice the same two things I did. The first was how many signs were posted on the hallways describing the maternity team’s KRs and displaying charts showing that they are meeting them. - Fully Homomorphic Encryption and the Public
In this living document, I will document reactions to uses of homomorphic encryption by members of the public. By “member of the public,” I mean people who may be technical, but are not directly involved in the development or deployment of homomorphic encryption systems. This includes journalists, bloggers, aggregator comment threads, and social media posts. My main goal is to understand how the public perceives the risks and benefits of using homomorphic encryption. - Attention spans for math and stories
Editor’s note: This essay was originally published in 2019. I have made minor edits in this republishing. There was a MathOverflow thread about mathematically interesting games for 5–6 year olds. A lot of the discussion revolved around how young age 5 really is, and how we should temper expectations because we don’t really remember what it’s like to be 5. In response to an enormous answer by Alexander Chervov, user LSpice quipped, “‘Daddy, daddy, let’s play another in the infinite indexed family of perfect-information draw-free cheap-to-construct two-player games!