The differential properties of certain permutation polynomials over finite fields

Finding functions, particularly permutations, with good differential properties has received a lot of attention due to their possible applications. For instance, in combinatorial design theory, a correspondence of perfect $c$-nonlinear functions and difference sets in some quasigroups was recently shown [1]. Additionally, in a recent manuscript by Pal and Stanica [20], a very interesting connection between the $c$-differential uniformity and boomerang uniformity when $c=-1$ was pointed out, showing that that they are the same for an odd APN permutations. This makes the construction of functions with low $c$-differential uniformity an intriguing problem. We investigate the $c$-differential uniformity of some classes of permutation polynomials. As a result, we add four more classes of permutation polynomials to the family of functions that only contains a few (non-trivial) perfect $c$-nonlinear functions over finite fields of even characteristic. Moreover, we include a class of permutation polynomials with low $c$-differential uniformity over the field of characteristic~$3$. As a byproduct, our proofs shows the permutation property of these classes. To solve the involved equations over finite fields, we use various techniques, in particular, we find explicitly many Walsh transform coefficients and Weil sums that may be of an independent interest

Analysis, classification and construction of optimal cryptographic Boolean functions

Modern cryptography is deeply founded on mathematical theory and vectorial Boolean functions play an important role in it. In this context, some cryptographic properties of Boolean functions are defined. In simple terms, these properties evaluate the quality of the cryptographic algorithm in which the functions are implemented. One cryptographic property is the differential uniformity, introduced by Nyberg in 1993. This property is related to the differential attack, introduced by Biham and Shamir in 1990. The corresponding optimal functions are called Almost Perfect Nonlinear functions, shortly APN. APN functions have been constructed, studied and classified up to equivalence relations. Very important is their classification in infinite families, i.e. constructing APN functions that are defined for infinitely many dimensions. In spite of an intensive study of these maps, many fundamental problems related to APN functions are still open and relatively few infinite families are known so far. In this thesis we present some constructions of APN functions and study some of their properties. Specifically, we consider a known construction, L1(x^3)+L2(x^9) with L1 and L2 linear maps, and we introduce two new constructions, the isotopic shift and the generalised isotopic shift. In particular, using the two isotopic shift constructing techniques, in dimensions 8 and 9 we obtain new APN functions and we cover many unclassified cases of APN maps. Here new stands for inequivalent (in respect to the so-called CCZ-equivalence) to already known ones. Afterwards, we study two infinite families of APN functions and their generalisations. We show that all these families are equivalent to each other and they are included in another known family. For many years it was not known whether all the constructed infinite families of APN maps were pairwise inequivalent. With our work, we reduce the list to those inequivalent to each other. Furthermore, we consider optimal functions with respect to the differential uniformity in fields of odd characteristic. These functions, called planar, have been valuable for the construction of new commutative semifields. Planar functions present often a close connection with APN maps. Indeed, the idea behind the isotopic shift construction comes from the study of isotopic equivalence, which is defined for quadratic planar functions. We completely characterise the mentioned equivalence by means of the isotopic shift and the extended affine equivalence. We show that the isotopic shift construction leads also to inequivalent planar functions and we analyse some particular cases of this construction. Finally, we study another cryptographic property, the boomerang uniformity, introduced by Cid et al. in 2018. This property is related to the boomerang attack, presented by Wagner in 1999. Here, we study the boomerang uniformity for some known classes of permutation polynomials.Doktorgradsavhandlin

Computational search for isotopic semifields and planar functions in characteristic 3

In this thesis, we investigate the possibility of finding new planar functions and corresponding semifields in characteristic 3 by the construction of isotopic semifields from the known families and sporadic instances of planar functions. Using the conditions laid out by Coulter and Henderson, we are able to deduce that a number of the known infinite families can never produce CCZ-inequivalent functions via isotopism. For the remaining families, we computationally investigate the isotopism classes of their instances over finite fields of order 3^n for n ≤ 8. We find previously unknown isotopisms between the semifields corresponding to some of the known planar functions for n = 6 and n = 8. This allows us to refine the known classification of planar functions up to isotopism, and to provide an updated, partial classification up to isotopism over finite fields of order 3^n for n ≤ 8.Masteroppgave i informatikkINF399MAMN-INFMAMN-PRO

On some modular representations of the Borel subgroup of GL_2(Q_p)

Colmez has given a recipe to associate a smooth modular representation Omega(W) of the Borel subgroup of GL_2(Q_p) to a F_p^bar-representation W of Gal(Qp^bar/Qp) by using Fontaine's theory of (phi,Gamma)-modules. We compute Omega(W) explicitly and we prove that if W is irreducible and dim(W)=2, then Omega(W) is the restriction to the Borel subgroup of GL_2(Q_p) of the supersingular representation associated to W in Breuil's correspondence.Comment: version 5 : final version, to appear in "Compositio Mathematica

The Strong Cm Lifting Problem & The Relabelling Action on The Equicharacteristic Universal Deformation Space of A P-Divisible Smooth Formal Groups Over an Algebraic Closure of a Field With P Elements

It is known that an abelian variety over a finite field may not admit a lifting to an abelian variety with complex multiplication in characteristic 0. In the first part of the thesis, we study the strong CM lifting problem (sCML): can we kill the obstructions to CM liftings by requiring the whole ring of integers in the CM field act on the abelian variety? We give counterexamples to question (sCML), and prove the answer to question (sCML) is affirmative under the following assumptions on the CM field L: for every place v above p in the maximal totally real subfield L0, either v is inert in L, or v is split in L with absolute ramification index e(v)p is a smooth formal scheme equipped with a naturally defined action by the automorphism group of the formal group via ``changing the label on the closed fiber\u27\u27. In the second part of the thesis, an algorithm to compute this relabelling action is described, and some asymptotic properties of the action are obtained as the automorphism of the formal group approaches identity