A class of binary cyclic codes and sequence families (Q513544)

The authors determine the value distribution of the exponential sum \[ S(a,b):=\sum_{x\in \mathbb{F}_{2^m}}(-1)^{\text{Tr}_1^m(ax+bx^d)} \] where \(d=\frac{2^{lk}+1}{2^l+1}+\frac{2(2^m-1)}{3}\) with odd integers \(l,k\) with \(0<l<k\) and \(\gcd(l,k)=1, m=2k\) and the trace mapping Tr\(_j^i(x):=x+x^{2^j}+x^{2^{2j}}+\ldots x^{2^{i-j}}\) for \(j\mid i\). When \(h_1(x)\) and \(h_2(x)\) are the minimal polynomials of \(g^{-1}\) and \(g^{-d}\) over \(\mathbb{F}_2\) for a fixed primitive element \(g\) of \(\mathbb{F}_{2^m}\) respectively, then, by a theorem of \textit{P. Delsarte} [IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory 21, 575--576 (1975; Zbl 0308.94004)], the binary cyclic code \({\mathcal{C}}\) over \(\mathbb{F}_2\) with length \(n=2^m-1\) and parity-check polynomial \(h_1(x)h_2(x)\) can be expressed as \[ {\mathcal{C}}= \biggl\{ c(a,b)=\bigl(\text{Tr}_1^m (ag^i+bg^{\text{id}})\bigr) _{i=0}^{n-1} \mid a,b\in \mathbb{F}_{2^m}\biggr\}. \] Thus, the weight distribution of \(\mathcal{C}\) can be obtained from the value distribution of \(S(a,b)\). As a second application, the correlation distribution among all the sequences of the sequence family \[ \biggl\{(s_{\alpha}(t))_{t=0}^{2^m-2} \mid s_{\alpha}(t)=\text{Tr}_1^m(\alpha g^{dt}+g^t), \alpha \in \mathbb{F}_{2^m}\biggr\} \] can be obtained from the explicit evaluation of \(S(a,b)\). The derivation of the exact value distribution of \(S(a,b) \) in the cases \(d=\frac{2^{lk}+1}{2^l+1}+i\cdot\frac{2^m-1}{3}\) with \(i=0\) or \(i=1\) (instead of \(i=2\)) is proposed as an open problem.