Permutation trinomials over Fq3

We consider four classes of polynomials over the fields ${\mathbb{F}}_{q^3}$, $q=p^h$, $p>3$, $f_1(x)=x^{q^2+q-1}+A{x}^{q^2-q+1}+Bx$, $f_2(x)=x^{q^2+q-1}+A{x}^{q^3-q^2+q}+Bx$, $f_3(x)=x^{q^2+q-1}+A{x}^{q^2}-Bx$, $f_4(x)=x^{q^2+q-1}+A{x}^q-Bx$, where $A,B\in {\mathbb{F}}_q$. We find sufficient conditions on the pairs $(A,B)$ for which these polynomials permute ${\mathbb{F}}_{q^3}$ and we give lower bounds on the number of such pairs.     

An upper bound on the number of frequency hypercubes

A frequency n-cube $F^n(q;l_0,...,l_{m-1})$ is an n-dimensional q-by-...-by-q array, where $q=l_0+...+l_{m-1}$, filled by numbers $0,...,m-1$ with the property that each line contains exactly $l_i$ cells with symbol i, $i=0,...,m-1$ (a line consists of q cells of the array differing in one coordinate). The trivial upper bound on the number of frequency n-cubes is $m^{{(q-1)}^n}$. We improve that lower bound for $n>2$, replacing $q-1$ by a smaller value s, by constructing a testing set of size $s^n$ for frequency n-cubes (a testing set is a collection of cells of an array the values in which uniquely determine the array with given parameters). We also construct new testing sets for generalized frequency n-cubes, which are essentially correlation-immune functions in n q-valued arguments; the cardinalities of new testing sets are smaller than for testing sets known before.     

Large blocking sets in PG(2,q2)

Minimal blocking sets in $\mathrm{PG}(2,q^2)$ have size at most $q^3+1$. This result is due to Bruen and Thas and the bound is sharp, sets attaining this bound are called unitals. In this paper, we show that the second largest minimal blocking sets have size at most $q^3+1-(p-3)/2$, if $q=p$, $p\ge 67$, or $q=p^h$, $p>7$, $h>1$. Our proof also works for sets having at least one tangent at each of its points (that is, for tangency sets).     

A note on the distribution of weights of fixed-rank matrices over the binary field

Let M be a random $m\times n$ rank-r matrix over the binary field ${\mathbb{F}}_2$, and let $\mathrm{wt}(\mathbf{M})$ be its Hamming weight, that is, the number of nonzero entries of M.We prove that, as $m,n\to +\infty$ with r fixed and $m/n$ tending to a constant, we have that$\frac{\mathrm{wt}(\mathbf{M})-\frac{1-2^{-r}}{2}mn}{\sqrt{\frac{2^{-r}(1-2^{-r})}{4}(m+n)mn}}$ converges in distribution to a standard normal random variable.     

A note on complex conference matrices

Let ${\mathbb{F}}_q$ be the Galois field of order $q=p^m$, p a prime number and m a positive integer. We prove in this article that for any nontrivial multiplicative character ϰ of ${\mathbb{F}}_q^{⁎}$ and for any $b\in {\mathbb{F}}_q^{⁎}$ we have$\sum _{a\in {\mathbb{F}}_q^{⁎}}\varkappa (a)\overline{\varkappa (a+b)}=-1$. Whenever q is odd and ϰ is the Legendre symbol this formula reduces to the well-known Jacobsthal's formula. A complex conference matrix is a square matrix of order n with zero diagonal and unimodular complex numbers elsewhere such that $C^{⁎}C=(n-1)I$. Paley used finite fields with odd orders $q=p^m$, p prime and the real Legendre symbol to construct real symmetric conference matrices of orders $q+1$ whenever $q\equiv 1(\mathrm{mod}4)$ and real skew-symmetric conference matrices of orders $q+1$ whenever $q\equiv -1(\mathrm{mod}4)$. In this article we extend Paley construction to the complex setting. We extend Jacobsthal's formula to all other nontrivial characters to produce a complex symmetric conference matrix of order $q+1$ whenever $q\ge 4$ is any prime power as well as a complex skew-symmetric conference matrix of order $q+1$ whenever q is any odd prime power. These matrices were constructed very recently in connection with harmonic Grassmannian codes, by use of finite fields and the character table of their additive characters. We propose here a new proof of their construction by use of the above generalized formula similarly as was done by Paley in the real case. We also classify, up to equivalence, the complex conference matrices constructed with some nontrivial characters. In particular, we prove that the complex conference matrix constructed with any nontrivial multiplicative character ϰ and that one constructed with ${\varkappa }^{p^k}$ for any integer $k=1,...m-1$ are permutation equivalent. Moreover, we determine the spectrum of any complex conference matrix obtained from this construction.     

Classification of some quadrinomials over finite fields of odd characteristic

In this paper, we completely determine all necessary and sufficient conditions such that the polynomial $f(x)=x^3+a{x}^{q+2}+b{x}^{2q+1}+c{x}^{3q}$, where $a,b,c\in {\mathbb{F}}_q^{⁎}$, is a permutation quadrinomial of ${\mathbb{F}}_{q^2}$ over any finite field of odd characteristic. This quadrinomial has been studied first in [25] by Tu, Zeng and Helleseth, later in [24] Tu, Liu and Zeng revisited these quadrinomials and they proposed a more comprehensive characterization of the coefficients that results with new permutation quadrinomials, where $char({\mathbb{F}}_q)=2$ and finally, in [16], Li, Qu, Li and Chen proved that the sufficient condition given in [24] is also necessary and thus completed the solution in even characteristic case. In [6] Gupta studied the permutation properties of the polynomial $x^3+a{x}^{q+2}+b{x}^{2q+1}+c{x}^{3q}$, where $char({\mathbb{F}}_q)=3,5$ and $a,b,c\in {\mathbb{F}}_q^{⁎}$ and proposed some new classes of permutation quadrinomials of ${\mathbb{F}}_{q^2}$.In particular, in this paper we classify all permutation polynomials of ${\mathbb{F}}_{q^2}$ of the form $f(x)=x^3+a{x}^{q+2}+b{x}^{2q+1}+c{x}^{3q}$, where $a,b,c\in {\mathbb{F}}_q^{⁎}$, over all finite fields of odd characteristic and obtain several new classes of such permutation quadrinomials.