New P\(c\)N and AP\(c\)N functions over finite fields (Q2234471)

Functions with low differential uniformity over finite fields have been widely investigated because of their applications in cryptography. Classically, the differential uniformity of \(f:\mathbb{F}_{p^n}\rightarrow \mathbb{F}_{p^n}\) is defined as the maximum of the quantities \[ \#\{x \in \mathbb{F}_{p^n}\,:\, f(x+a)-f(x)=b \}, \] with \(a,b\) ranging in \(\mathbb{F}_{p^n}.\) Recently, inspired from the development of a new differential attack, Ellingsen et al. proposed a new type of differential uniformity (the so called c-differential uniformity), replacing the above mentioned quantity with \[ \#\{ x \in \mathbb{F}_{p^n}\,:\, f(x+a)-cf(x)=b \}, \] where \(c\in \mathbb{F}_{p^n}\). In this paper, the authors propose two classes of functions with \(c\)-differential uniformity 1 and three classes of functions with \(c\)-differential uniformity 2. The main tools are the AGW criterion, the cyclotomic technique and the switching method.