Characterization of \(p\)-ary functions in terms of association schemes and its applications (Q2068615)

It is obtained an explicit criterion for \(p\)-ary functions to produce association schemes in terms of their Walsh spectrum. Applying this characterization, it is explicitly found a correlation between \(p\)-ary bent functions and association schemes. More precisely, it is proved that a \(p\)-ary bent function induces a \(p\)-class association scheme if and only if the function is weakly regular. As application of the main criterion, many infinite families of few-class association schemes arising from \(p\)-ary functions are constructed. In particular, four classes of \(p\)-ary two-weight linear codes are presented, which are constructed from the association schemes produced in this paper.