Abstract
We begin at the beginning. A field is a place where you can add, subtract, multiply, and divide. More formally, it is a set F, together with two binary operations, “+” and “·”, such that:
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1.
F is an Abelian group under “+”, with identity element 0.
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2.
The nonzero elements of F form an Abelian group under “·”.
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3.
The distributive law a· (b + c) = a · b + a · c holds.
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© 1987 Kluwer Academic Publishers
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McEliece, R.J. (1987). Prologue. In: Finite Fields for Computer Scientists and Engineers. The Kluwer International Series in Engineering and Computer Science, vol 23. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-1983-2_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-1983-2_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-9185-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-4613-1983-2
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