Paper 2026/1859

Finding a Shortest Vector and More in $2^{n/2+o(n)}$ Time using $q$-ary Coset Difference Tree

Abstract

This paper presents a new randomized algorithm for solving the exact shortest vector problem. For the $n$-dimensional lattice $\mathcal L$, our algorithm runs in time and space $2^{n/2+o(n)}$. Our algorithm can be viewed as a $q$-ary analogue of the midpoint Hessian for an odd prime $q$; more precisely, we use the fact that, for a shortest vector $v$, the gradient (rather than Hessian) of the periodic Gaussian function at $v/q$ is nearly proportional to $v$ (up to sign), even after aggregation over a relatively large random affine coset. We compute the relevant coset gradient along a chain of intermediate lattices using a combinatorial procedure inspired by Wagner's generalized birthday algorithm, yielding the $2^{n/2+o(n)}$ time and space complexity. A variant of the algorithm solves the exact closest vector problem on every input $(y,\mathcal L)$ with a distance guarantee $\operatorname{dist}(y,\mathcal L)\le 1.039\lambda_1(\mathcal L)$ within the same time and space complexity. This guarantee holds for a random target and a random lattice drawn according to the Haar-Siegel measure. Thus, this algorithm solves a closest vector problem on such random instances in time and space $2^{n/2+o(n)}$.