Codes, graphs and schemes from nonlinear functions

AbstractWe consider functions on binary vector spaces which are far from linear functions in different senses. We compare three existing notions: almost perfect nonlinear functions, almost bent (AB) functions, and crooked (CR) functions. Such functions are of importance in cryptography because of their resistance to linear and differential attacks on certain cryptosystems. We give a new combinatorial characterization of AB functions in terms of the number of solutions to a certain system of equations, and a characterization of CR functions in terms of the Fourier transform. We also show how these functions can be used to construct several combinatorial structures; such as semi-biplanes, difference sets, distance regular graphs, symmetric association schemes, and uniformly packed (BCH and Preparata) codes

On diameter perfect constant-weight ternary codes

From cosets of binary Hamming codes we construct diameter perfect constant-weight ternary codes with weight $n-1$ (where $n$ is the code length) and distances 3 and 5. The class of distance 5 codes has parameters unknown before. Keywords: constant-weight codes, ternary codes, perfect codes, diameter perfect codes, perfect matchings, Preparata codesComment: 15 pages, 2 figures; presented at 2004 Com2MaC Conference on Association Schemes, Codes and Designs; submitted to Discrete Mathematic

A Note on Cyclic Codes from APN Functions

Cyclic codes, as linear block error-correcting codes in coding theory, play a vital role and have wide applications. Ding in \cite{D} constructed a number of classes of cyclic codes from almost perfect nonlinear (APN) functions and planar functions over finite fields and presented ten open problems on cyclic codes from highly nonlinear functions. In this paper, we consider two open problems involving the inverse APN functions $f(x)=x^{q^m-2}$ and the Dobbertin APN function $f(x)=x^{2^{4i}+2^{3i}+2^{2i}+2^{i}-1}$. From the calculation of linear spans and the minimal polynomials of two sequences generated by these two classes of APN functions, the dimensions of the corresponding cyclic codes are determined and lower bounds on the minimum weight of these cyclic codes are presented. Actually, we present a framework for the minimal polynomial and linear span of the sequence $s^{\infty}$ defined by $s_t=Tr((1+\alpha^t)^e)$, where $\alpha$ is a primitive element in $GF(q)$. These techniques can also be applied into other open problems in \cite{D}