Constructions of \(p\)-ary quadratic bent functions (Q2473317)

Bent functions are used widely in combinatorics. For example, in design theory they are the non-trivial difference sets in elementary abelian 2-groups, and in coding theory they are the most distant vectors from the first-order Reed-Muller codes. They also have applications in cryptography. The authors study bent functions of the form \(\sum_{i=1}^{(n-1)/2} c_i \text{tr}_1^n(x^{p^i+1})\) for odd \(n\) and \(\sum_{i=1}^{n/2 -1 } c_i \text{tr}_1^n(x^{p^i+1}) + c_{n/2} \text{tr}_1^{n/2}(x^{p^{n/2 +1}})\) for even \(n\), over the finite field of order \(p^n\), with \(c_i\) an element of the finite field of order \(p\). The authors use the greatest common divisors of certain polynomials to determine which functions are in fact bent functions. The authors study the cases when \(n=p^vq^r\) and \(n=2p^vq^r,\) with \(v \geq 0\), \(r \geq 1\), where \(q\) is an odd prime and \(p\) is a primitive element modulo \(q^2.\) Enumerations of bent functions are given for certain specific cases.