Computing prime factors may sound like an elementary math problem, but try it with a large number, say one that contains more than 600 digits, and the task becomes enormously challenging and ...

Shor’s quantum factoring algorithm exponentially outperforms known classical methods. Previous experimental implementations have used simplifications dependent on knowing the factors in advance.

Mathematicians and number buffs have their records. And at last, an international team has broken a long-standing one in an impressive feat of calculation. Mathematicians have just reached the end of ...

Peter Shor didn’t set out to break the internet. But an algorithm he developed in the mid-1990s threatened to do just that. In a landmark paper, Shor showed how a hypothetical computer that exploited ...

Results from the latest round, factoring a record-setting 167-digit number, may help simplify some mathematical theorems and help scientists develop secret codes for computer security. "The fact that ...