Number in Mathematical Cryptography

Abstract

With the challenge of quantum computing ahead, an analysis of number and representation adequate to the task is needed. Some clarifications on the combinatorial nature of representation are presented here; this is related to the foundations of digital representations of integers, and is thus also of interest in clarifying what numbers are and how they are used in pure and applied mathematics. The author hopes this work will help mathematicians and computer scientists better understand the nature of the Generalized Knapsack Code, a lattice-based code which the author believes to be particularly promising, and the use of number in computing in general.