On constructions of bent, semi-bent and five valued spectrum functions from old bent functions (Q2397497)

The Walsh transform of a Boolean function \(f:\mathbb F_2^n\to\mathbb F_2\) is the mapping \(\widehat{\chi_f}:\mathbb F_2^n\to \mathbb Z\) defined by \(\widehat{\chi_f}(b)=\sum_{x\in\mathbb F_2^n}(-1)^{f(x)+x\cdot b}\), where \(x\cdot b\) is the usual inner product of \(x\) and \(b\). When \(n\) is a positive even integer, a function \(f:\mathbb F_2^n\to \mathbb F_2\) is called \textit{bent} if \(\widehat{\chi_f}(b)\in\{\pm2^{n/2}\}\) for all \(b\in\mathbb F_2^n\), and is called \textit{semi-bent} if \(\widehat{\chi_f}(b)\in\{0,\pm2^{n/2+1}\}\) for all \(b\in\mathbb F_2^n\). If \(f:\mathbb F_2^n\to\mathbb F_2\) is bent, we have \(\widehat{\chi_f}(b)=(-1)^{\widetilde f(b)}2^{n/2}\) for all \(b\in\mathbb F_2^n\), where \(\widetilde f:\mathbb F_2^n\to\mathbb F_2\) is a function uniquely determined by \(f\); the function \(\widetilde f:\mathbb F_2^n\to\mathbb F_2\) is also bent and is called the \textit{dual} of \(f\). A result by Carlet states that if a function \(f:\mathbb F_2^r\times\mathbb F_2^s\to\mathbb F_2\) (\(r,s\) even) is such that for each fixed \(y\in\mathbb F_2^s\), the function \(f_y:\mathbb F_2^r\to\mathbb F_2\), \(x\mapsto f(x,y)\), is bent, then \(f\) is bent if and only if for each \(u\in\mathbb F_2^r\), the function \(t_u:\mathbb F_2^s\to\mathbb F_2\), \(y\mapsto \widetilde{f_y}(u)\), is bent. Moreover, when the condition is satisfied, one has \(\widetilde f(u,v)=\widetilde{t_u}(v)\) for all \((u,v)\in\mathbb F_2^r\times\mathbb F_2^s\). Based on Carlet's result, the present paper gives several secondary constructions of bent functions, semi-bent functions, and Boolean functions whose Walsh transform takes five values. The constructions are similar; a representative of them is Theorem~4: Let \(f_1,f_2,f_3:\mathbb F_2^n\to\mathbb F_2\) and \(g_1,g_2,g_3:\mathbb F_2^m\to\mathbb F_2\) be bent functions such that \(\nu_1:=f_1+f_2+f_3\) and \(\nu_2:=g_1+g_2+g_3\) are also bent and \(\widetilde{\nu_1}=\widetilde{f_1}+\widetilde{f_2}+\widetilde{f_3}+1\). Then \(f:\mathbb F_2^n\times\mathbb F_2^m\to\mathbb F_2\) defined by \[ \begin{aligned} f(x,y)=\,& (f_1(x)+f_2(x))(g_1(y)+g_2(y))+(f_2(x)+f_3(x))(g_2(y)+g_3(y))\cr &+f_1(x)+g_1(y)g_2(y)+g_1(y)g_3(y)+g_2(y)g_3(y) \end{aligned} \] is bent and \[ \begin{aligned} \widetilde f(x,y)=\,& (\widetilde{f_1}(x)+\widetilde{f_2}(x))(\widetilde{g_1}(y)+\widetilde{g_2}(y))+((\widetilde{f_2}(x)+\widetilde{f_3}(x))(\widetilde{g_2}(y)+\widetilde{g_3}(y))\cr &+\widetilde{f_1}(x)+\pi(y)(\widetilde{f_1}(x)+\widetilde{f_2}(x))(\widetilde{f_1}(x)+\widetilde{f_3}(x)), \end{aligned} \] where \(\pi=\widetilde{\nu_2}+\widetilde{g_1}+\widetilde{g_2}+\widetilde{g_3}\).