On the \(c\)-differential spectrum of power functions over finite fields (Q2673986)

Functions with low differential uniformity over finite fields have been widely investigated because of their applications in cryptography. Classically, the differential uniformity of \(f:\mathbb{F}_{p^n}\rightarrow \mathbb{F}_{p^n}\) is defined as the maximum of the quantities \[ \#\{x \in \mathbb{F}_{p^n}\,:\, f(x+a)-f(x)=b \}, \] with \(a,b\) ranging in \(\mathbb{F}_{p^n}.\) Recently, inspired by the development of a new differential attack, Ellingsen et al. proposed a new type of differential uniformity (the so called \(c\)-differential uniformity), replacing the above mentioned quantity with \[ \#\{ x \in \mathbb{F}_{p^n}\,:\, f(x+a)-cf(x)=b \}, \] for a fixed \(c\in \mathbb{F}_{p^n}\). In this paper, the authors investigate several properties about the \(c\)-differential spectrum of power functions. In particular, they exhibit a new class of APcN power permutations, i.e. power functions whose \(c\)-differential uniformity is 2.