Solving sparse linear equations over finite fields

A "coordinate recurrence" method for solving sparse systems of linear equations over finite fields is described. The algorithms discussed all require
O(n_{1}(\omega + n_{1})\log^{k}n_{1})
field operations, where
n_{1}
is the maximum dimension of the coefficient matrix,
\omega
is approximately the number of field operations required to apply the matrix to a test vector, and the value of
k
depends on the algorithm. A probabilistic algorithm is shown to exist for finding the determinant of a square matrix. Also, probabilistic algorithms are shown to exist for finding the minimum polynomial and rank with some arbitrarily small possibility of error.