Results on rotation symmetric bent functions

In this paper we analyze the combinatorial properties related to the Walsh spectra of rotation symmetric Boolean functions on even number of variables. These results are then applied in studying rotation symmetric bent functions. For the first time we could present an enumeration strategy for all the 10-variable rotation symmetric bent functions.     

An outline of linear programming

Linear programming deals with the maximization or minimization of linear functions subject to linear inequality constraints. Definitions and practical examples are given in Section 2. Section 3 gives a geometric interpretation of the simplex algorithm. Section 4 develops the mathematical theory of duality and gives heuristic interpretations in terms of shadow prices. Section 5 studies those linear programs for which integer solutions are normally required and discusses those cases in which integer solutions arise naturally and those in which special techniques must be used.The preparation of this paper was supported in part by the Army Research Office under Contract No. DA-ARO-D-31-124-70-G42.     

On the ranks of bent functions

The rank of a bent function is the 2-rank of the associated symmetric 2-design. In this paper, it is shown that it is an invariant under the equivalence relation among bent functions. Some upper and lower bounds of ranks of general bent functions, Maiorana–McFarland bent functions and Desarguesian partial spread bent functions are given. As a consequence, it is proved that almost every Desarguesian partial spread bent function is not equivalent to any Maiorana–McFarland bent function.     

On the confusion and diffusion properties of Maiorana–McFarland's and extended Maiorana–McFarland's functions

A practical problem in symmetric cryptography is finding constructions of Boolean functions leading to reasonably large sets of functions satisfying some desired cryptographic criteria. The main known construction, called Maiorana–McFarland, has been recently extended. Some other constructions exist, but lead to smaller classes of functions. Here, we study more in detail the nonlinearities and the resiliencies of the functions produced by all these constructions. Further we see how to obtain functions satisfying the propagation criterion (among which bent functions) with these methods, and we give a new construction of bent functions based on the extended Maiorana–McFarland's construction.     

Ribbon Schur Functions

We present a new determinantal expression for Schur functions. Previous expressions were due to Jacobi, Trudi, Giambelli and others (see [7]) and involved elementary symmetric functions or hook functions. We give, in Theorem 1.1, a decomposition of a Schur function into ribbon functions (also called skew hook functions, new functions by MacMahon, and MacMahon functions by others). We provide two different proofs of this result in Sections 2 and 3. In Section 2, we use Bazin's formula for the minors of a general matrix, as we already did in [6], to decompose a skew Schur function into hooks. In Section 3, we show how to pass from hooks to ribbons and conversely. In Section 4, we generalize to skew Schur functions. In Section 5, we give some applications, and show how such constructions, in the case of staircase partitions, generalize the classical continued fraction for the tangent function due to Euler.     

Enumeration of the bent functions of least deviation from a quadratic bent function

We study a construction of the bent functions of least deviation from a quadratic bent function, describe all these bent functions of 2k variables, and show that the quantity of them is 2 ^k (2¹ + 1) ... (2 ^k + 1). We find some lower bound on the number of the bent functions of least deviation from a bent function of the Maiorana-McFarland class.     

On Boolean functions with the sum of every two of them being bent

A set of Boolean functions is called a bent set if the sum of any two distinct members is a bent function. We show that any bent set yields a homogeneous system of linked symmetric designs with the same design parameters as those systems derived from Kerdock sets. Further we observe that there are bent sets of size equal to the square root of the Kerdock set size which consist of Boolean functions with arbitrary degrees.     

Bent and generalized bent Boolean functions

In this paper, we investigate the properties of generalized bent functions defined on ${\mathbb{Z}_2^n}$ with values in ${\mathbb{Z}_q}$ , where q ≥ 2 is any positive integer. We characterize the class of generalized bent functions symmetric with respect to two variables, provide analogues of Maiorana–McFarland type bent functions and Dillon’s functions in the generalized set up. A class of bent functions called generalized spreads is introduced and we show that it contains all Dillon type generalized bent functions and Maiorana–McFarland type generalized bent functions. Thus, unification of two different types of generalized bent functions is achieved. The crosscorrelation spectrum of generalized Dillon type bent functions is also characterized. We further characterize generalized bent Boolean functions defined on ${\mathbb{Z}_2^n}$ with values in ${\mathbb{Z}_4}$ and ${\mathbb{Z}_8}$ . Moreover, we propose several constructions of such generalized bent functions for both n even and n odd.     

A novel algorithm enumerating bent functions

Based on the relationship between the Walsh spectra of a Boolean function at partial points and the Walsh spectra of its subfunctions, and on the binary Möbius transform, a novel algorithm is developed, which can theoretically construct all bent functions. Practically we enumerate all bent functions in 6 variables. With the restriction on the algebraic normal form, the algorithm is also efficient in more variables case. For example, enumeration of all homogeneous bent functions of degree 3 in 8 variables can be done in one minute with a P4 1.7 GHz computer; the nonexistence of homogeneous bent functions in 10 variables of degree 4 is computationally proved.     

拟Bent函数的性质和构造

本文将基本2-群中拟Bent函数的概念推广到一般的有限Abel群中,统一了目前几乎所有的Bent函数概念,完全刻画了一类拟Bent函数和Bent函数的本质联系,给出了几种拟Bent函数的构造方法,拟Bent函数和相对差集的一种关系以及一种用拟Bent函数构造Bent函数的方法.最后,利用Galois环和组合集,找到一类拟Bent函数.     

基于对称随机变量构造的反例

应用相关文献中对称随机变量分布函数的充要条件,阐明连续型对称随机变量概率密度的偶函数特点,以及对称随机变量的不相关性,构造一些教学反例.     

Rotation symmetric Boolean functions—Count and cryptographic properties

Rotation symmetric (RotS) Boolean functions have been used as components of different cryptosystems. This class of Boolean functions are invariant under circular translation of indices. Using Burnside's lemma it can be seen that the number of n-variable rotation symmetric Boolean functions is 2^g_n, where g_n=(1/n)∑_t|nφ(t)2^n/t, and φ(.) is the Euler phi-function. In this paper, we find the number of short and long cycles of elements in having fixed weight, under the RotS action. As a consequence we obtain the number of homogeneous RotS functions having algebraic degree w. Our results make the search space of RotS functions much reduced and we successfully analyzed important cryptographic properties of such functions by executing computer programs. We study RotS bent functions up to 10 variables and observe (experimentally) that there is no homogeneous rotation symmetric bent function having degree >2. Further, we studied the RotS functions on 5,6,7 variables by computer search for correlation immunity and propagation characteristics and found some functions with very good cryptographic properties which were not known earlier.     

Some Properties of Bent Functions

First, this paper discusses and sums up some properties of a pair of functions p（x）, q（x） that makes （y ＋ 1）p（x） ＋ yq（x） into a bent function. Then it discusses the properties of bent functions. Also, the upper and lower bounds of the number of bent functions on GF（2）2k are discussed.     

Results on Bent Functions

In this paper, we present three results on bent functions: a construction, a restriction, and a characterization. Starting with a single bent function, in a simple but very effective way, the construction produces a large number of new bent functions in the same number of variables. The restriction imposes new conditions on the directional derivatives of bent functions. Certain non-existence results that were previously obtained through computer search follow easily from these conditions. The characterization describes bent functions as certain solutions of a system of quadratic equations. Interesting new properties of bent functions are obtained using the characterization.     

Normal Boolean functions

Dobbertin (Construction of bent functions and balanced Boolean functions with high nonlinearity, in: Fast Software Encryption, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 1008, Springer, Berlin, 1994, pp. 61–74) introduced the normality of bent functions. His work strengthened the interest for the study of the restrictions of Boolean functions on k-dimensional flats providing the concept of k-normality. Using recent results on the decomposition of any Boolean functions with respect to some subspace, we present several formulations of k-normality. We later focus on some highly linear functions, bent functions and almost optimal functions. We point out that normality is a property for which these two classes are strongly connected. We propose several improvements for checking normality, again based on specific decompositions introduced in Canteaut et al. (IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, 47(4) (2001) 1494), Canteaut and Charpin (IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory). As an illustration, we show that cubic bent functions of 8 variables are normal.     

On the Loewy Length and the Noetherian Dimension of Artinian Modules

The problem of computing the automorphism groups of an elementary Abelian Hadamard difference set or equivalently of a bent function seems to have attracted not much interest so far. We describe some series of such sets and compute their automorphism group. For some of these sets the construction is based on the nonvanishing of the degree 1-cohomology of certain Chevalley groups in characteristic two. We also classify bent functions f such that Aut(f) together with the translations from the underlying vector space induce a rank 3 group of automorphisms of the associated symmetric design. Finally, we discuss computational aspects associated with such questions.     

Ramsey's theorem—A new lower bound

This paper gives improved asymptotic lower bounds to the Ramsey function R(k, t). Section 1 considers the symmetric case k = t while the more general case is considered in Section 2.     

Stochastic investment models—theory and applications

The paper discusses a stochastic model for investment variables, involving four series: the Retail Prices Index, an index of share dividend yields, an index of share yields, and the yield on ‘consols’. Section 2 describes the model and explains its derivation on the basis of historical data. Section 3 shows how the model can be used for forecasting the distributions of the variables. Section 4 discusses possible applications, and describes two in detail, relating to the expense charges of unit trusts and to guarantees incorporated in index linked life annuities.     

MacWilliams duality and a Gleason-type theorem on self-dual bent functions

We prove that the MacWilliams duality holds for bent functions. It enables us to derive the concept of formally self-dual Boolean functions with respect to their near weight enumerators. By using this concept, we prove the Gleason-type theorem on self-dual bent functions. As an application, we provide the total number of (self-dual) bent functions in two and four variables obtaining from formally self-dual Boolean functions.