Instead of iterating through all the possible numbers, is there a better way to find the greatest factor of a number $n$, such that it is less than $m$ ($m$ < $n$). Similarly how does one find the smallest factor of $n$ that is greater than $m$?
[Math] Finding the greatest (smallest) factor of a number smaller (greater) than another number
factorizationnt.number-theory
Best Answer
You can certainly use Pollard's Rho algorithm to probabalistically compute the greatest factor of $n$ smaller than $m$ in $O(min(n^\frac{1}{4}, m^\frac{1}{2}) polylog(n))$ time. Your other question is actually the same as the first. That is $k>m$ is a factor of $n$ iff $\frac{n}{k}$ is a factor of $n$ and smaller than $\frac{n}{m}$.