On affine (non)equivalence of Boolean functions (Q2390953)

In this paper a multiset \(S(f)\) of a Boolean function \(f\) consisting of the weights of the second derivatives of the function \(f\) is constructed with respect to all distinct two-dimensional subspaces of the domain, called the second derivative spectrum of \(f\). The frequency distribution of the weights of these second derivatives is referred to as the weight distribution of the second derivative spectrum. It is shown that this weight distribution can be used to distinguish affine nonequivalent Boolean functions. An algorithm having O(\(n2^{2n}\)) time complexity is proposed to compute \(S(f)\). It is also shown that all the 6-variable affine nonequivalent bents can be distinguished using this weight distribution. Six different weight distributions are obtained from the set of partial-spreads type bent functions on 8 variables. Using the second derivative spectrum it is proved that there exist 6 and 8 variable bent functions which are not affine equivalent to rotation symmetric bent functions. Another result is that for \(n\) even and \(n\geq 10\) no non-quadratic Kasami Boolean function has second derivative equal to zero, which implies that no non-quadratic Kasami bent function is affine equivalent to Maiorana-MacFarland type bent functions.