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Cryptography - MAT00080H

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  • Department: Mathematics
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: H
  • Academic year of delivery: 2025-26

Related modules

No pre-requistites beyond first-year core modules.

Elective Pre-Requisites

These pre-requisites only apply to students taking this module as an elective.

Semester 2 
Prerequisites: In the section on Public Key Cryptography we will be using a lot of modular arithmetic. If you are familiar with statements such as "If p is a prime and x is coprime to p, then x^{p-1}=1(mod p)" then you'll be fine. Even if you don't know these topics, you will be reminded of what you need to know at the relevant part of the course. We also make a lot of use of Euclid's algorithm for finding greatest common divisors. The section on AES/Rijndael uses the finite field GF(2^8) which you possibly won't have seen, but the required mathematics for which will be taught to you in the course as not all the single-subject mathematicians will have seen finite fields before either! In the sections concerning quantum cryptography the prerequisites are: familiarity with complex numbers, basic linear algebra (matrix multiplication, finding eigenvalues and eigenvectors, diagonalizing matrices) and basic probability theory (working with discrete probability distributions, computing conditional probabilities).

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Semester 2 2025-26

Module aims

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Module learning outcomes

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Indicative assessment

Task % of module mark
Closed/in-person Exam (Centrally scheduled) 100.0

Special assessment rules

None

Indicative reassessment

Task % of module mark
Closed/in-person Exam (Centrally scheduled) 100.0

Module feedback

Information currently unavailable

Indicative reading

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