Multiplying Polynomials

Multiplying polynomials

The algorithm that allows us to multiply polynomials in $O(n \log n)$ is called the Cooley-Tukey fast Fourier transform, or FFT for short. It was discovered by Gauss 160 years earlier, but then separately rediscovered and publicized by Cooley-Tukey.

The heart of Cooley-Tukey FFT is actually about converting between coefficient and evaluation representations, rather than the multiplication itself. Given polynomials $p$ and $q$ in dense coefficient representation, it works like this.

1. Convert $p$ and $q$ from coefficient to evaluation form in $O(n\log n)$ using Cooley-Tukey FFT
2. Compute $r = p*q$ in evaluation form by multiplying their points pairwise in $O(n)$
3. Convert $r$ back to coefficient form in $O(n\log n)$ using the inverse Cooley-Tukey FFT

The key observation is that we can choose any $n$ distinct evaluation points to represent any degree $n - 1$ polynomial. The Cooley-Tukey FFT works by selecting points that yield an efficient FFT algorithm. These points are fixed and work for any polynomials of a given degree.

The next section describes the Cooley-Tukey FFT in detail.