The AFactor function is a placeholder for representing an absolute factorization of the polynomial p, that is a factorization over an algebraic closure of its coefficient field. It is used in conjunction with evala.

The call evala(AFactor(p)) computes the factorization of the polynomial p over the field of complex numbers. The polynomial p must have algebraic number coefficients.

In the case of a univariate polynomial, the absolute factorization is just the decomposition into linear factors.

$\mathrm{evala}\left(\mathrm{AFactor}\left(x^2-2y^2\right)\right)$

$\left(x-\mathrm{RootOf}\left({\mathrm{\_Z}}^2-2\right)y\right)\left(x+\mathrm{RootOf}\left({\mathrm{\_Z}}^2-2\right)y\right)$