Further study of planar functions in characteristic two (Q2659138)

Let \(q\) be a power of a prime, \(n \geq 1\), \(\mathbb{F}_{q^n}\) be the finite field with \(q^n\) elements and \(\mathbb{F}_{q^n}^*= \mathbb{F}_{q^n} \setminus\{0\}\). A function \(f :\mathbb{F}_{q^n} \to \mathbb{F}_{q^n}\) is called planar if for each \(a \in \mathbb{F}_{q^n}^*\), the difference function \[D_{f,a} \ :\ \mathbb{F}_{q^n} \to \mathbb{F}_{q^n},\quad D_{f,a}(x) = f (x+a) - f (x)\] is a permutation of \(\mathbb{F}_{q^n}\). Clearly, functions satisfying the previous condition exist only for \(q\) odd, and are related to the construction of relative difference sets, optimal constant-composition codes, secret sharing schemes arising from certain linear codes, signal sets with good correlation properties, and finite semifields. More recently, \textit{Y. Zhou} [J. Comb. Des. 21, No. 12, 563--584 (2013; Zbl 1290.05038)] defined a natural analogue of planar functions for even characteristic: If \(q\) is even, a function \(f : \mathbb{F}_q \to \mathbb{F}_q\) is planar if, for each nonzero \(a \in \mathbb{F}_q\), the function \(x\to f(x + a) + f(x) + ax\) is a permutation of \(\mathbb{F}_q\). Such planar functions have similar properties and applications as their odd characteristic counterparts. In this paper, using the Lang-Weil bound, the authors characterize the necessary and sufficient conditions on coefficients of four classes of planar functions over \(\mathbb{F}_{q^k}\), where \(q = 2^m\) with \(m\) sufficiently large.