Non-negligible probability of obtaining a prime ideal by random pre-processing

Let KK be a number field of degree dd, with discriminant Δ(K) \Delta(K), and let II be an ideal with an LLL-reduced Z \mathbb{Z}-basis b1,b2,,bdb_1,b_2,\ldots,b_d. Set B=2dΔ(K)B=2^d\Delta(K), and let NN count the coefficient vectors in the box [B,B]d[-B,B]^d for which the associated quotient is a prime ideal:

N={(r1,r2,,rd)Zd:1id, BriB,and (i=1dribi)/I is a prime ideal}.N=\left| \left\{(r_1,r_2,\ldots,r_d)\in\mathbb{Z}^d:\begin{matrix}\forall 1\leq i\leq d,\ -B\leq r_i\leq B,\\ \text{and }(\sum_{i=1}^d r_i b_i)/I\text{ is a prime ideal} \end{matrix}\right\}\right|.

Non-negligible-prime-ideal conjecture. The proportion of such coefficient vectors is inverse-polynomial in dd and log(B)\log(B):

N(2B)d>1poly(d,log(B)).\frac{N}{(2B)^d}>\frac{1}{\operatorname{poly}(d,\log(B))}.

This would justify reducing the decision principal ideal problem for general ideals to the prime-ideal case, since random pre-processing would produce a prime ideal with non-negligible probability. The source presents this as a conjectural heuristic; no resolution is supplied.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Jincheng Zhuang and Qi Cheng, “Solving the Decision Principal Ideal Problem with Pre-processing”, arXiv:2506.09605 (2025).

Progress summary

Never refreshed

Nothing recorded yet. Refresh searches the literature and the public web for attempts on this problem, and writes the first summary here.

Solutions 0

No solutions have been posted yet.