[Math] How to handle negative numbers in modular arithmetic

finite-fieldsmodular arithmetic

I have a constraint to use finite-field arithmetic in my application. Since I want it to resemble ordinary arithmetic as much as possible, I chose a large prime $p$ (e.g., $ p > 2^{256} )$, and I'm performing all operations modulus $p$.

The trouble starts when I'm mixing negative and positive numbers. In this scheme, a negative number becomes a positive number, and that yields weird results (perfectly fine in modular arithmetic, but that's not what I'm trying to achieve).

Is there a way to retain the properties of a finite field of size $p$, but instead of representing it with the group: $\{0, 1, … p-1\}$, representing it with: $\{-\lfloor \frac{p-1}{2}\rfloor, … 0 … ,\lfloor \frac{p-1}{2}\rfloor\}$ ?

Best Answer

You can represent equivalence classes any way you want to. If you're asking whether you can give ${\mathbb Z}/p{\mathbb Z}$ the structure of an ordered field, the answer is no. To see this, consider that $1$ is positive, so any sum of $1$'s is positive, so everything is positive.

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