Transcendence Criterion for Values of Certain Functions of Several Variables

Let ${\Phi_0(\boldmath{z})}$ be the function defined by $$\Phi_0({\boldmath z}) = \Phi _{0}(z_1,\ldots, z_m)=\sum_{k\geq 0}\frac{E_k(z_1^{r^k},\ldots,z_m^{r^k})}{F_k(z_1^{r^k},\ldots,z_m^{r^k})},$$ where ${E_k(\boldmath{z})}$ and ${F_k(\boldmath{z})}$ are polynomials in m variables ${\boldmath{z} = (z_1,\ldots, z_m)}$ with coefficients satisfying a weak growth condition and r ≥ 2 a fixed integer. For an algebraic point ${\boldmath{\alpha}}$ satisfying some conditions, we prove that ${\Phi_{0}(\boldmath{\alpha})}$ is algebraic if and only if ${\Phi_{0}(\boldmath{z})}$ is a rational function. This is a generalization of the transcendence criterion of Duverney and Nishioka in one variable case. As applications, we give some examples of transcendental numbers.     

On {\mathbb{F}_q} -Rational Structure of Nilpotent Orbits in the Witt Algebra

Let ${\mathfrak{g}=W_1}$ be the p-dimensional Witt algebra over an algebraically closed field ${k=\overline{\mathbb{F}}_q}$ , where p > 3 is a prime and q is a power of p. Let G be the automorphism group of ${\mathfrak{g}}$ . The Frobenius morphism F _G (resp. ${F_\mathfrak{g}}$ ) can be defined naturally on G (resp. ${\mathfrak{g}}$ ). In this paper, we determine the ${F_\mathfrak{g}}$ -stable G-orbits in ${\mathfrak{g}}$ . Furthermore, the number of ${\mathbb{F}_q}$ -rational points in each ${F_\mathfrak{g}}$ -stable orbit is precisely given. Consequently, we obtain the number of ${\mathbb{F}_q}$ -rational points in the nilpotent variety.     

Composed products and factors of cyclotomic polynomials over finite fields

Let q = p ^s be a power of a prime number p and let ${\mathbb {F}_{\rm q}}$ be a finite field with q elements. This paper aims to demonstrate the utility and relation of composed products to other areas such as the factorization of cyclotomic polynomials, construction of irreducible polynomials, and linear recurrence sequences over ${\mathbb {F}_{\rm q}}$ . In particular we obtain the explicit factorization of the cyclotomic polynomial ${\Phi_{2^nr}}$ over ${\mathbb {F}_{\rm q}}$ where both r ≥ 3 and q are odd, gcd(q, r) = 1, and ${n\in \mathbb{N}}$ . Previously, only the special cases when r = 1, 3, 5, had been achieved. For this we make the assumption that the explicit factorization of ${\Phi_r}$ over ${\mathbb {F}_{\rm q}}$ is given to us as a known. Let ${n = p_1^{e_1}p_2^{e_2}\cdots p_s^{e_s}}$ be the factorization of ${n \in \mathbb{N}}$ into powers of distinct primes p _i , 1 ≤ i ≤ s. In the case that the multiplicative orders of q modulo all these prime powers ${p_i^{e_i}}$ are pairwise coprime, we show how to obtain the explicit factors of ${\Phi_{n}}$ from the factors of each ${\Phi_{p_i^{e_i}}}$ . We also demonstrate how to obtain the factorization of ${\Phi_{mn}}$ from the factorization of ${\Phi_n}$ when q is a primitive root modulo m and ${{\rm gcd}(m, n) = {\rm gcd}(\phi(m),{\rm ord}_n(q)) = 1.}$ Here ${\phi}$ is the Euler’s totient function, and ord _n (q) denotes the multiplicative order of q modulo n. Moreover, we present the construction of a new class of irreducible polynomials over ${\mathbb {F}_{\rm q}}$ and generalize a result due to Varshamov (Soviet Math Dokl 29:334–336, 1984).     

Levi Factors of the Special Fiber of a Parahoric Group Scheme and Tame Ramification

Let $\cal{A}$ be a Henselian discrete valuation ring with fractions K and with perfect residue field k of characteristic p?>?0. Let G be a connected and reductive algebraic group over K, and let $\cal{P}$ be a parahoric group scheme over $\cal{A}$ with generic fiber ${\cal{P}}_{/K} = G$ . The special fiber ${\cal{P}}_{/k}$ is a linear algebraic group over k. If G splits over an unramified extension of K, we proved in some previous work that the special fiber ${\cal{P}}_{/k}$ has a Levi factor, and that any two Levi factors of ${\cal{P}}_{/k}$ are geometrically conjugate. In the present paper, we extend a portion of this result. Following a suggestion of Gopal Prasad, we prove that if G splits over a tamely ramified extension of K, then the geometric special fiber ${\cal{P}}_{/k_{\rm{alg}}}$ has a Levi factor, where k _alg is an algebraic closure of k.     

Alternating groups and flag-transitive triplanes

Let ${\mathcal{D}}$ be a nontrivial triplane, and G be a subgroup of the full automorphism group of ${\mathcal{D}}$ . In this paper we prove that if ${\mathcal{D}}$ is a triplane, ${G\leq Aut(\mathcal{D})}$ is flag-transitive, point-primitive and Soc(G) is an alternating group, then ${\mathcal{D}}$ is the projective space PG ₂(3, 2), and ${G\cong A_7}$ with the point stabiliser ${G_x\cong PSL_3(2)}$ .     

Forbidden Induced Subgraphs for Perfect Matchings

Let ${\mathcal{F}}$ be a family of connected graphs. A graph G is said to be ${\mathcal{F}}$ -free if G is H-free for every graph H in ${\mathcal{F}}$ . We study the problem of characterizing the families of graphs ${\mathcal{F}}$ such that every large enough connected ${\mathcal{F}}$ -free graph of even order has a perfect matching. This problems was previously studied in Plummer and Saito (J Graph Theory 50(1):1–12, 2005), Fujita et al. (J Combin Theory Ser B 96(3):315–324, 2006) and Ota et al. (J Graph Theory, 67(3):250–259, 2011), where the authors were able to characterize such graph families ${\mathcal{F}}$ restricted to the cases ${|\mathcal{F}|\leq 1, |\mathcal{F}| \leq 2}$ and ${|\mathcal{F}| \leq 3}$ , respectively. In this paper, we complete the characterization of all the families that satisfy the above mentioned property. Additionally, we show the families that one gets when adding the condition ${|\mathcal{F}| \leq k}$ for some k ≥ 4.     

Modular Decomposition of the Orlik-Terao Algebra

Let ${\mathcal{A}}$ be a collection of n linear hyperplanes in ${\mathbb{k}^\ell}$ , where ${\mathbb{k}}$ is an algebraically closed field. The Orlik-Terao algebra of ${\mathcal{A}}$ is the subalgebra ${{\rm R}(\mathcal{A})}$ of the rational functions generated by reciprocals of linear forms vanishing on hyperplanes of ${\mathcal{A}}$ . It determines an irreducible subvariety ${Y (\mathcal{A})}$ of ${\mathbb{P}^{n-1}}$ . We show that a flat X of ${\mathcal{A}}$ is modular if and only if ${{\rm R}(\mathcal{A})}$ is a split extension of the Orlik-Terao algebra of the subarrangement ${\mathcal{A}_X}$ . This provides another refinement of Stanley’s modular factorization theorem [34] and a new characterization of modularity, similar in spirit to the fibration theorem of [27]. We deduce that if ${\mathcal{A}}$ is supersolvable, then its Orlik-Terao algebra is Koszul. In certain cases, the algebra is also a complete intersection, and we characterize when this happens.     

The intersection map of subgroups and the classes {\mathcal {PST}_c}, {\mathcal {PT}_c} and {\mathcal {T}_c}

A group G is called a ${\mathcal {T}_{c}}$ -group if every cyclic subnormal subgroup of G is normal in G. Similarly, classes ${\mathcal {PT}_{c}}$ and ${\mathcal {PST}_{c}}$ are defined, by requiring cyclic subnormal subgroups to be permutable or S-permutable, respectively. A subgroup H of a group G is called normal (permutable or S-permutable) cyclic sensitive if whenever X is a normal (permutable or S-permutable) cyclic subgroup of H there is a normal (permutable or S-permutable) cyclic subgroup Y of G such that ${X=Y \cap H}$ . We analyze the behavior of a collection of cyclic normal, permutable and S-permutable subgroups under the intersection map into a fixed subgroup of a group. In particular, we tie the concept of normal, permutable and S-permutable cyclic sensitivity with that of ${\mathcal {T}_c}$ , ${\mathcal {PT}_c}$ and ${\mathcal {PST}_c}$ groups. In the process we provide another way of looking at Dedekind, Iwasawa and nilpotent groups.     

Donsker-type theorems for nonparametric maximum likelihood estimators

Let ${\mathcal{P}}$ be a nonparametric probability model consisting of smooth probability densities and let ${\hat{p}_{n}}$ be the corresponding maximum likelihood estimator based on n independent observations each distributed according to the law ${\mathbb{P}}$ . With $\hat{\mathbb{P}}_{n}$ denoting the measure induced by the density ${\hat{p}_{n}}$ , define the stochastic process ${\hat{\nu}}_{n}: f\longmapsto \sqrt{n} \int fd({\hat{\mathbb{P}}}_{n} -\mathbb{P})$ where f ranges over some function class ${\mathcal{F}}$ . We give a general condition for Donsker classes ${\mathcal{F}}$ implying that the stochastic process $\hat{\nu}_{n}$ is asymptotically equivalent to the empirical process in the space ${\ell ^{\infty }(\mathcal{F})}$ of bounded functions on ${ \mathcal{F}}$ . This implies in particular that $\hat{\nu}_{n}$ converges in law in ${\ell ^{\infty }(\mathcal{F})}$ to a mean zero Gaussian process. We verify the general condition for a large family of Donsker classes ${\mathcal{ F}}$ . We give a number of applications: convergence of the probability measure ${\hat{\mathbb{P}}_{n}}$ to ${\mathbb{P}}$ at rate ${\sqrt{n}}$ in certain metrics metrizing the topology of weak(-star) convergence; a unified treatment of convergence rates of the MLE in a continuous scale of Sobolev-norms; ${\sqrt{n}}$ -efficient estimation of nonlinear functionals defined on ${\mathcal{P}}$ ; limit theorems at rate ${\sqrt{n}}$ for the maximum likelihood estimator of the convolution product ${\mathbb{P\ast P}}$ .     

A Construction of Generalized Harish-Chandra Modules for Locally Reductive Lie Algebras

We study cohomological induction for a pair $ {\left( {\mathfrak{g},\mathfrak{k}} \right)} $ , $ \mathfrak{g} $ being an infinitedimensional locally reductive Lie algebra and $ \mathfrak{k} \subset \mathfrak{g} $ being of the form $ \mathfrak{k}_{0} \subset C_{\mathfrak{g}} {\left( {\mathfrak{k}_{0} } \right)} $ , where $ \mathfrak{k}_{0} \subset \mathfrak{g} $ is a finite-dimensional reductive in $ \mathfrak{g} $ subalgebra and $ C_{\mathfrak{g}} {\left( {\mathfrak{k}_{0} } \right)} $ is the centralizer of $ \mathfrak{k}_{0} $ in $ \mathfrak{g} $ . We prove a general nonvanishing and $ \mathfrak{k} $ -finiteness theorem for the output. This yields, in particular, simple $ {\left( {\mathfrak{g},\mathfrak{k}} \right)} $ -modules of finite type over k which are analogs of the fundamental series of generalized Harish-Chandra modules constructed in [PZ1] and [PZ2]. We study explicit versions of the construction when $ \mathfrak{g} $ is a root-reductive or diagonal locally simple Lie algebra.     

On Quadratic Differentials and Twisted Normal Maps of Surfaces in {\mathbb{S}^{2} \times\mathbb{R}} and {\mathbb{H}^{2} \times\mathbb{R}}

Given a Lie group G with a bi-invariant metric and a compact Lie subgroup K, Bittencourt and Ripoll used the homogeneous structure of quotient spaces to define a Gauss map ${\mathcal{N}:M^{n}\rightarrow{\mathbb{S}}}$ on any hypersupersurface ${M^{n}\looparrowright G/K}$ , where ${{\mathbb{S}}}$ is the unit sphere of the Lie algebra of G. It is proved in Bittencourt and Ripoll (Pacific J Math 224:45–64, 2006) that M ⁿ having constant mean curvature (CMC) is equivalent to ${\mathcal{N}}$ being harmonic, a generalization of a Ruh–Vilms theorem for submanifolds in the Euclidean space. In particular, when n = 2, the induced quadratic differential ${\mathcal{Q}_{\mathcal{N}}:=(\mathcal{N}^{\ast}g)^{2,0}}$ is holomorphic on CMC surfaces of G/K. In this paper, we take ${G/K={\mathbb{S}}^{2}\times{\mathbb{R}}}$ and compare ${\mathcal{Q}_{\mathcal{N}}}$ with the Abresch–Rosenberg differential ${\mathcal{Q}}$ , also holomorphic for CMC surfaces. It is proved that ${\mathcal{Q}=\mathcal{Q}_{\mathcal{N}}}$ , after showing that ${\mathcal{N}}$ is the twisted normal given by (1.5) herein. Then we define the twisted normal for surfaces in ${{\mathbb{H}}^{2}\times{\mathbb{R}}}$ and prove that ${\mathcal{Q}=\mathcal{Q}_{\mathcal{N}}}$ as well. Within the unified model for the two product spaces, we compute the tension field of ${\mathcal{N}}$ and extend to surfaces in ${{\mathbb{H}}^{2}\times{\mathbb{R}}}$ the equivalence between the CMC property and the harmonicity of ${\mathcal{N}.}$      

On Extending {\mathcal{A}}-Modules Through the Coefficients

In classical linear algebra, extending the ring of scalars of a free module gives rise to a new free module containing an isomorphic copy of the former and satisfying a certain universal property. Also, given two free modules on the same ring of scalars and a morphism between them, enlarging the ring of scalars results in obtaining a new morphism having the nice property that it coincides with the initial map on the isomorphic copy of the initial free module in the new one. We investigate these problems in the category of free ${\mathcal{A}}$ -modules, where ${\mathcal{A}}$ is an ${\mathbb{R}}$ -algebra sheaf. Complexification of free ${\mathcal{A}}$ -modules, which is defined to be the process of obtaining new free ${\mathcal{A}}$ -modules by enlarging the ${\mathbb{R}}$ -algebra sheaf ${\mathcal{A}}$ to a ${\mathbb{C}}$ -algebra sheaf, denoted ${\mathcal{A}_\mathbb{C}}$ , is an important particular case (see Proposition 2.1, Proposition 3.1). Attention, on the one hand, is drawn on the sub- ${_{\mathbb{R}}\mathcal{A}}$ -sheaf of almost complex structures on the sheaf ${{_\mathbb{R}}\mathcal{A}^{2n}}$ , the underlying ${\mathbb{R}}$ -algebra sheaf of a ${\mathbb{C}}$ -algebra sheaf ${\mathcal{A}}$ , and on the other hand, on the complexification of the functor ${\mathcal{H}om_\mathcal {A}}$ , with ${\mathcal{A}}$ an ${\mathbb{R}}$ -algebra sheaf.     

Forbidden configurations and Steiner designs

Let ${\mathcal{F}}$ be a (0, 1) matrix. A (0, 1) matrix ${\mathcal{M}}$ is said to have ${\mathcal{F}}$ as a configuration if there is a submatrix of ${\mathcal{M}}$ which is a row and column permutation of ${\mathcal{F}}$ . We say that a matrix ${\mathcal{M}}$ is simple if it has no repeated columns. For a given ${v \in \mathbb{N}}$ , we shall denote by forb ${(v, \mathcal{F})}$ the maximum number of columns in a simple (0, 1) matrix with v rows for which ${\mathcal{F}}$ does not occur as a configuration. We say that a matrix ${\mathcal{M}}$ is maximal for ${\mathcal{F}}$ if ${\mathcal{M}}$ has forb ${(v, \mathcal{F})}$ columns. In this paper we show that for certain natural choices of ${\mathcal{F}}$ , forb ${(v, \mathcal{F})\leq\frac{\binom{v}{t}}{t+1}}$ . In particular this gives an extremal characterization for Steiner t-designs as maximal (0, 1) matrices in terms of certain forbidden configurations.     

The Majorization Theorem for Signless Laplacian Spectral Radii of Connected Graphs

Let ${\pi=(d_{1},d_{2},\ldots,d_{n})}$ and ${\pi'=(d'_{1},d'_{2},\ldots,d'_{n})}$ be two non-increasing degree sequences. We say ${\pi}$ is majorizated by ${\pi'}$ , denoted by ${\pi \vartriangleleft \pi'}$ , if and only if ${\pi\neq \pi'}$ , ${\sum_{i=1}^{n}d_{i}=\sum_{i=1}^{n}d'_{i}}$ , and ${\sum_{i=1}^{j}d_{i}\leq\sum_{i=1}^{j}d'_{i}}$ for all ${j=1,2,\ldots,n}$ . If there exists one connected graph G with ${\pi}$ as its degree sequence and ${c=(\sum_{i=1}^{n}d_{i})/2-n+1}$ , then G is called a c-cyclic graph and ${\pi}$ is called a c-cyclic degree sequence. Suppose ${\pi}$ is a non-increasing c-cyclic degree sequence and ${\pi'}$ is a non-increasing graphic degree sequence, if ${\pi \vartriangleleft \pi'}$ and there exists some t ${(2\leq t\leq n)}$ such that ${d'_{t}\geq c+1}$ and ${d_{i}=d'_{i}}$ for all ${t+1\leq i\leq n}$ , then the majorization ${\pi \vartriangleleft \pi'}$ is called a normal majorization. Let μ(G) be the signless Laplacian spectral radius, i.e., the largest eigenvalue of the signless Laplacian matrix of G. We use C _π to denote the class of connected graphs with degree sequence π. If ${G \in C_{\pi}}$ and ${\mu(G)\geq \mu(G')}$ for any other ${G'\in C_{\pi}}$ , then we say G has greatest signless Laplacian radius in C _π . In this paper, we prove that: Let π and π′ be two different non-increasing c-cyclic (c ≥ 0) degree sequences, G and G′ be the connected c-cyclic graphs with greatest signless Laplacian spectral radii in C _π and C _π', respectively. If ${\pi \vartriangleleft \pi'}$ and it is a normal majorization, then ${\mu(G) < \mu(G')}$ . This result extends the main result of Zhang (Discrete Math 308:3143–3150, 2008).     

Diagram Groupoids and von Neumann Algebras

The main purpose of this paper is to study certain algebraic structures induced by directed graphs. We have studied graph groupoids, which are algebraic structures induced by given graphs. By defining a certain groupoid-homomorphism ?? on the graph groupoid ${\mathbb{G}}$ of a given graph G, we define the diagram of G by the image ${\delta(\mathbb{G})}$ of ??, equipped with the inherited binary operation on ${\mathbb{G}}$ . We study the fundamental properties of the diagram ${\delta(\mathbb{G})}$ , and compare them with those of ${\mathbb{G}}$ . Similar to Cho (Acta Appl Math 95:95?C134, 2007), we construct the groupoid von Neumann algebra ${\mathcal{M}_{G}=vN(\delta(\mathbb{G}))}$ , generated by ${\delta(\mathbb{G})}$ , and consider the operator algebraic properties of ${\mathcal{M}_{G}}$ . In particular, we show ${\mathcal{M}_{G}}$ is *-isomorphic to a von Neumann algebra generated by a family of idempotent operators and nilpotent operators, under suitable representations.     

Categories of bounded \left( {\mathfrak{sp}\left( {{{\mathrm{S}}^2}V \oplus {{\mathrm{S}}^2}{V^{*}}} \right),\;\mathfrak{gl}(V)} \right) - and \left( {\mathfrak{sp}\left( {{\varLambda^2}V \oplus {\varLambda^2}{V^{*}}} \right),\;\mathfrak{gl}(V)} \right) -modules

Let $ \mathfrak{g} $ be a reductive Lie algebra over $ \mathbb{C} $ and $ \mathfrak{k} \subset \mathfrak{g} $ be a reductive in $ \mathfrak{g} $ subalgebra. We call a $ \mathfrak{g} $ -module M a $ \left( {\mathfrak{g}{\hbox{,}}\;\mathfrak{k}} \right) $ -module whenever M is a direct sum of finite-dimensional $ \mathfrak{k} $ -modules. We call a $ \left( {\mathfrak{g}{\hbox{,}}\;\mathfrak{k}} \right) $ -module M bounded if there exists $ {C_M} \in {\mathbb{Z}_{{ \geqslant 0}}} $ such that for any simple finite-dimensional $ \mathfrak{k} $ -module E the dimension of the E-isotypic component is not greater than C _M dim E. Bounded $ \left( {\mathfrak{g}{\hbox{,}}\;\mathfrak{k}} \right) $ -modules form a subcategory of the category of $ \mathfrak{g} $ -modules. Let V be a finite-dimensional vector space. We prove that the categories of bounded $ \left( {\mathfrak{sp}\left( {{{\mathrm{S}}^2}V \oplus {{\mathrm{S}}^2}{V^{*}}} \right),\;\mathfrak{gl}(V)} \right) $ - and $ \left( {\mathfrak{sp}\left( {{\varLambda^2}V \oplus {\varLambda^2}{V^{*}}} \right),\;\mathfrak{gl}(V)} \right) $ -modules are isomorphic to the direct sum of countably many copies of the category of representations of some explicitly described quiver with relations under some mild assumptions on the dimension of V .     

On Zero-Sum {\mathbb{Z}_k} -Magic Labelings of 3-Regular Graphs

Let G =  (V, E) be a finite loopless graph and let (A, +) be an abelian group with identity 0. Then an A-magic labeling of G is a function ${\phi}$ from E into A ? {0} such that for some ${a \in A, \sum_{e \in E(v)} \phi(e) = a}$ for every ${v \in V}$ , where E(v) is the set of edges incident to v. If ${\phi}$ exists such that a =  0, then G is zero-sum A-magic. Let zim(G) denote the subset of ${\mathbb{N}}$ (the positive integers) such that ${1 \in zim(G)}$ if and only if G is zero-sum ${\mathbb{Z}}$ -magic and ${k \geq 2 \in zim(G)}$ if and only if G is zero-sum ${\mathbb{Z}_k}$ -magic. We establish that if G is 3-regular, then ${zim(G) = \mathbb{N} - \{2\}}$ or ${\mathbb{N} - \{2,4\}.}$      

Note on Group Distance Magic Graphs G[C 4]

A group distance magic labeling or a ${\mathcal{G}}$ -distance magic labeling of a graph G =  (V, E) with ${|V | = n}$ is a bijection f from V to an Abelian group ${\mathcal{G}}$ of order n such that the weight ${w(x) = \sum_{y\in N_G(x)}f(y)}$ of every vertex ${x \in V}$ is equal to the same element ${\mu \in \mathcal{G}}$ , called the magic constant. In this paper we will show that if G is a graph of order n =  2 ^p (2k + 1) for some natural numbers p, k such that ${\deg(v)\equiv c \mod {2^{p+1}}}$ for some constant c for any ${v \in V(G)}$ , then there exists a ${\mathcal{G}}$ -distance magic labeling for any Abelian group ${\mathcal{G}}$ of order 4n for the composition G[C ₄]. Moreover we prove that if ${\mathcal{G}}$ is an arbitrary Abelian group of order 4n such that ${\mathcal{G} \cong \mathbb{Z}_2 \times\mathbb{Z}_2 \times \mathcal{A}}$ for some Abelian group ${\mathcal{A}}$ of order n, then there exists a ${\mathcal{G}}$ -distance magic labeling for any graph G[C ₄], where G is a graph of order n and n is an arbitrary natural number.     

Characterization of (generalized) Lie derivations on {\mathcal{J}}-subspace lattice algebras by local action

Let ${\mathcal{L}}$ be a ${\mathcal{J}}$ -subspace lattice on a Banach space X over the real or complex field ${\mathbb{F}}$ with dim X ≥ 2 and Alg ${\mathcal{L}}$ be the associated ${\mathcal{J}}$ -subspace lattice algebra. For any scalar ${\xi \in \mathbb{F}}$ , there is a characterization of any linear map L : Alg ${\mathcal{L} \rightarrow {\rm Alg} {\mathcal{L}}}$ satisfying ${L([A,B]_\xi) = [L(A),B]_\xi + [A,L(B)]_\xi}$ for any ${A, B \in{\rm Alg} {\mathcal{L}}}$ with AB = 0 (rep. ${[A,B]_ \xi = AB - \xi BA = 0}$ ) given. Based on these results, a complete characterization of (generalized) ξ-Lie derivations for all possible ξ on Alg ${\mathcal{L}}$ is obtained.     

Bent functions embedded into the recursive framework of {\mathbb{Z}} -bent functions

Suppose that n is even. Let ${\mathbb{F}_2}$ denote the two-element field and ${\mathbb{Z}}$ the set of integers. Bent functions can be defined as ± 1-valued functions on ${\mathbb{F}_2^n}$ with ± 1-valued Fourier transform. More generally we call a mapping f on ${\mathbb{F}_2^n}$ a ${\mathbb{Z}}$ -bent function if both f and its Fourier transform ${\widehat{f}}$ are integer-valued. ${\mathbb{Z}}$ -bent functions f are separated into different levels, depending on the size of the maximal absolute value attained by f and ${\widehat{f}}$ . It is shown how ${\mathbb{Z}}$ -bent functions of lower level can be built up recursively by gluing together ${\mathbb{Z}}$ -bent functions of higher level. This recursion comes down at level zero, containing the usual bent functions. In the present paper we start to study bent functions in the framework of ${\mathbb{Z}}$ -bent functions and give some guidelines for further research.