Semi-invariants of Symmetric Quivers

This is my PhD thesis supervised by Professor Jerzy Weyman. A symmetric quiver $(Q,\sigma)$ is a finite quiver without oriented cycles $Q=(Q_0,Q_1)$ equipped with a contravariant involution $\sigma$ on $Q_0\sqcup Q_1$. The involution allows us to define a nondegenerate bilinear form on a representation $V$ of $Q$. We shall say that $V$ is orthogonal if is symmetric and symplectic if $$ is skew-symmetric. Moreover we define an action of products of classical groups on the space of orthogonal representations and on the space of symplectic representations. So we prove that if $(Q,\sigma)$ is a symmetric quiver of finite type or of tame type then the rings of semi-invariants for this action are spanned by the semi-invariants of determinantal type $c^V$ and, in the case when matrix defining $c^V$ is skew-symmetric, by the Pfaffians $pf^V$

Hecke-Kiselman Monoids of Small Cardinality

In this paper, we give a characterization of digraphs $Q, |Q|\leq 4$ such that the associated Hecke-Kiselman monoid $H_Q$ is finite. In general, a necessary condition for $H_Q$ to be a finite monoid is that $Q$ is acyclic and its Coxeter components are Dynkin diagram. We show, by constructing examples, that such conditions are not sufficient

On the primitivity of Lai-Massey schemes

In symmetric cryptography, the round functions used as building blocks for iterated block ciphers are often obtained as the composition of different layers providing confusion and diffusion. The study of the conditions on such layers which make the group generated by the round functions of a block cipher a primitive group has been addressed in the past years, both in the case of Substitution Permutation Networks and Feistel Networks, giving to block cipher designers the receipt to avoid the imprimitivity attack. In this paper a similar study is proposed on the subject of the Lai-Massey scheme, a framework which combines both Substitution Permutation Network and Feistel Network features. Its resistance to the imprimitivity attack is obtained as a consequence of a more general result in which the problem of proving the primitivity of the Lai-Massey scheme is reduced to the simpler one of proving the primitivity of the group generated by the round functions of a strictly related Substitution Permutation Network

Regular subgroups with large intersection

In this paper we study the relationships between the elementary abelian regular subgroups and the Sylow $2$-subgroups of their normalisers in the symmetric group $\mathrm{Sym}(\mathbb{F}_2^n)$, in view of the interest that they have recently raised for their applications in symmetric cryptography

Wave-Shaped Round Functions and Primitive Groups

Round functions used as building blocks for iterated block ciphers, both in the case of Substitution-Permutation Networks and Feistel Networks, are often obtained as the composition of different layers which provide confusion and diffusion, and key additions. The bijectivity of any encryption function, crucial in order to make the decryption possible, is guaranteed by the use of invertible layers or by the Feistel structure. In this work a new family of ciphers, called wave ciphers, is introduced. In wave ciphers, round functions feature wave functions, which are vectorial Boolean functions obtained as the composition of non-invertible layers, where the confusion layer enlarges the message which returns to its original size after the diffusion layer is applied. This is motivated by the fact that relaxing the requirement that all the layers are invertible allows to consider more functions which are optimal with regard to non-linearity. In particular it allows to consider injective APN S-boxes. In order to guarantee efficient decryption we propose to use wave functions in Feistel Networks. With regard to security, the immunity from some group-theoretical attacks is investigated. In particular, it is shown how to avoid that the group generated by the round functions acts imprimitively, which represent a serious flaw for the cipher

Some group-theoretical results on Feistel Networks in a long-key scenario

Under embargo until: 2021-07-01The study of the trapdoors that can be hidden in a block cipher is and has always been a high-interest topic in symmetric cryptography. In this paper we focus on Feistel-network-like ciphers in a classical long-key scenario and we investigate some conditions which make such a construction immune to the partition-based attack introduced recently by Bannier et al.acceptedVersio

A modular idealizer chain and unrefinability of partitions with repeated parts

Recently Aragona et al. have introduced a chain of normalizers in a Sylow 2-subgroup of Sym(2^n), starting from an elementary abelian regular subgroup. They have shown that the indices of consecutive groups in the chain depend on the number of partitions into distinct parts and have given a description, by means of rigid commutators, of the first n-2 terms in the chain. Moreover, they proved that the (n-1)-th term of the chain is described by means of rigid commutators corresponding to unrefinable partitions into distinct parts. Although the mentioned chain can be defined in a Sylow p-subgroup of Sym(p^n), for p > 2 computing the chain of normalizers becomes a challenging task, in the absence of a suitable notion of rigid commutators. This problem is addressed here from an alternative point of view. We propose a more general framework for the normalizer chain, defining a chain of idealizers in a Lie ring over Z_m whose elements are represented by integer partitions. We show how the corresponding idealizers are generated by subsets of partitions into at most m-1 parts and we conjecture that the idealizer chain grows as the normalizer chain in the symmetric group. As an evidence of this, we establish a correspondence between the two constructions in the case m=2