Important: The polytools package has been deprecated. Use the superseding command PolynomialTools[Splits] instead.

The splits function computes the complete factorization of a univariate polynomial.

The univariate polynomial a in x, with rational or algebraic number coefficients or polynomial coefficients, is factored into linear factors.

The factorization is returned in the form  where  where each  (the factor) is a unit normal irreducible polynomial and each  (its multiplicity) is a positive integer.

In the case of three arguments, the third argument b is assigned the extensions of Q on output, where Q is the set of rational numbers.

The command with(polytools,splits) allows the use of the abbreviated form of this command.