Relation between o-equivalence and EA-equivalence for Niho bent functions

Boolean functions, and bent functions in particular, are considered up to so-called EA-equivalence, which is the most general known equivalence relation preserving bentness of functions. However, for a special type of bent functions, so-called Niho bent functions there is a more general equivalence relation called o-equivalence which is induced from the equivalence of o-polynomials. In the present work we study, for a given o-polynomial, a general construction which provides all possible o-equivalent Niho bent functions, and we considerably simplify it to a form which excludes EA-equivalent cases. That is, we identify all cases which can potentially lead to pairwise EA-inequivalent Niho bent functions derived from o-equivalence of any given Niho bent function. Furthermore, we determine all pairwise EA-inequivalent Niho bent functions arising from all known o-polynomials via o-equivalence.     

Finding nonnormal bent functions

The question if there exist nonnormal bent functions was an open question for several years. A Boolean function in n variables is called normal if there exists an affine subspace of dimension n/2 on which the function is constant. In this paper we give the first nonnormal bent function and even an example for a nonweakly normal bent function. These examples belong to a class of bent functions found in [J.F. Dillon, H. Dobbertin, New cyclic difference sets with Singer parameters, in: Finite Fields and Applications, to appear], namely the Kasami functions. We furthermore give a construction which extends these examples to higher dimensions. Additionally, we present a very efficient algorithm that was used to verify the nonnormality of these functions.     

On the coefficients of binary bent functions

We prove a 2-adic inequality for the coefficients of binary bent functions in their polynomial representations. The 2-adic inequality implies a family of identities satisfied by the coefficients. The identities also lead to the discovery of some new affine invariants of Boolean functions on .

     

Construction of bent functions from near-bent functions

We give a construction of bent functions in dimension 2m from near-bent functions in dimension 2m−1. In particular, we give the first ever examples of non-weakly-normal bent functions in dimensions 10 and 12, which demonstrates the significance of our construction.     

On homogeneous rotation symmetric bent functions

In this paper, we present partial results towards the conjectured nonexistence of homogeneous rotation symmetric bent functions having degree > 2.     

A class of binary cyclic codes with generalized Niho exponents

In this paper, a class of binary cyclic codes with three generalized Niho-type nonzeros is introduced. Based on some techniques in solving certain equations over finite fields, the proposed cyclic codes are shown to have six nonzero weights and the weight distribution is also completely determined.     

Equivalence classes of Niho bent functions

Equivalence classes of Niho bent functions are in one-to-one correspondence with equivalence classes of ovals in a projective plane. Since a hyperoval can produce several ovals, each hyperoval is associated with several inequivalent Niho bent functions. For all known types of hyperovals we described the equivalence classes of the corresponding Niho bent functions. For some types of hyperovals the number of equivalence classes of the associated Niho bent functions are at most 4. In general, the number of equivalence classes of associated Niho bent functions increases exponentially as the dimension of the underlying vector space grows. In small dimensions the equivalence classes were considered in detail.

     

On bent functions with some symmetric properties

This paper discusses a kind of bent functions that have some symmetric properties about some variables. Section 2 mainly discusses the bent functions symmetric about some two variables and gives the necessary and sufficient condition for these functions. Section 3 gives algebraic expressions of some bent functions.     

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.     

A construction of weakly and non-weakly regular bent functions

In this article a technique for constructing p-ary bent functions from near-bent functions is presented. This technique is then used to obtain both weakly regular and non-weakly regular bent functions. In particular we present the first known infinite class of non-weakly regular bent functions.     

p-Ary and q-ary versions of certain results about bent functions and resilient functions

Using the Teichmüller character and Gauss sums, we obtain the following results concerning p-ary bent functions and q-ary resilient functions: (1) a characterization of certain q-ary resilient functions in terms of their coefficients; (2) stronger upper bounds for the degree of p-ary bent functions; (3) determination of all bent functions on ; (4) a characterization of ternary weakly regular bent functions in terms of their coefficients.