Couples de suites binaires de longueur maximale ayant une corrélation croisée à trois valeurs: conjecture de Welch (Q4238028)

The long standing conjecture of Welch is proven, that, for odd \(n=2m+1\), the function \[ a \mapsto \sum_{x \in F_{2^n}} (-1)^{\text{tr} (x^{2^m +3} +ax)}, \quad a \in F_{2^n}, \] where \(\text{tr}(.)\) is the trace function from \(F_{2^n}\) to \(F_2\), takes on only the three values \(0\), \(\pm 2^{m+1}\). The result has wide application in telecommunications for the design of sequences with low cross correlation. The result is proven by consideration of almost perfect nonlinear (APN) mappings and Walsh transforms. It also makes use of a result of \textit{R. J. McEliece} [Discrete Math. 3, 177-192 (1972; Zbl 0251.94008)] on binary cyclic codes whose weights are divisible by a power of \(2\).