Square and Multiply with Polynomials

910 Views Asked by At

I'm trying to use the square and multiply algorithm to compute:

x^11 mod x^4+x+1 in Z2[x], ie. in the Galois Field 2^4, GF(16)

I believe all that I need to do is divide x^4+x+1 into x^11, and the remainder will be my answer but as I work through the division I'm getting:

-x^2 + x^5 

I don't know how to do all the math notation here to make it look really nice, but I'll do my best to illustrate my division:

             x^8-x^5
             ------------
 x^4 + x + 1 |x^11
             -x^11 -x^9-x^8
             ----------------
                   -x^9-x^8
                   +x^9+x^6+x^5
             -------------------
                       -x^2+x^5

I'm stuck here, as I can't reduce x^4 into x^2 but I still need to reduce x^5 down at least one more degree so it fits in the field (2^4). Did I make an arithmetic error somewhere or am I way off with my understanding of the square and multiply method and Galois Fields?