APN monomials over \(\mathrm{GF}(2^n)\) for infinitely many \(n\) (Q2467333)

It is known that an application of Weil's theorem on absolutely irreducible curves shows that a monomial \(x^m\) is not Almost Perfect Nonlinear (APN) over \(\mathbb{F}_{2^n}\) for all sufficiently large \(n\) if a related two variable polynomial has an absolutely irreducible factor defined over \(\mathbb{F}_2\). Using the latter fact it is shown in this paper that except in three specific, narrowly defined cases, all monomials have such a factor over a finite field of characteristic 2. Two of these cases, those with exponents of the form \(2^k+1\) or \(4^k-2^k+1\) for any integer \(k\), are already known to be APN for infinitely many fields. The last case when a certain gcd is maximal remains still unproven.