A new class of bent and hyper-bent Boolean functions in polynomial forms (Q2430697)

Let \(\mathbb F_q\) denote the finite field with \(q\) elements, and let \(\text{tr}_n(x)\) be the absolute trace of an element \(x \in \mathbb F_{2^n}\) over \(\mathbb F_2\). The ``sign'' function of a Boolean function \(f: \mathbb F_{2^n} \to \mathbb F_2\) is the integer-valued function \(\chi (f):=(-1)^f\), and the Walsh transform of \(f\) is the discrete Fourier transform of \(\chi_f\) whose value at \(\omega \in \mathbb F_{2^n}\) equals \[ \widehat{\chi}_f(\omega)=\sum_{x \in \mathbb F_{2^n}} (-1)^{f(x)+{\text{tr}}_n(\omega x)}. \] For even \(n=2m\), \(f\) is called a bent function if \(\widehat{\chi}_f(\omega)=\pm 2^m\) for all \(\omega \in \mathbb F_{2^n}\). Bent functions are Boolean functions which achieve maximum distance to all affine functions. This paper focusses on functions of the type \[ f_{a,b}(x):=\text{tr}_n(a x^{2^m-1})+\text{tr}_2(b x^{\frac{2^n-1}{3}}), \quad x \in \mathbb F{_2^n}, \] where \(a \in \mathbb F_{2^n}\) and \(b \in \mathbb F_4,\) and uses Kloosterman sums defined by \[ K_m(a):= \sum_{x \in \mathbb F_{2^m}} \chi \left(\text{tr}_m\left(ax+\frac{1}{x}\right)\right),\quad a \in \mathbb F_{2^m}, \] where \(\chi \left(\text{tr}_m\left(a x + \frac{1}{x}\right)\right): = 0\) for \(x=0\). The main result is the following: Suppose that \(m\) is odd, \(m>3\), \(a \in \mathbb F_{2^m} \backslash \{0\}\) and \(b \in \mathbb F_4 \backslash \{ 0 \},\) then \(f_{a,b} \) is bent if and only if \(K_m (a)=4.\) Moreover, it is shown that this characterization of bentness is also valid for functions of a more general form. For \(m\) even, \(m>2,\) it can only be shown that \(f_{a,b}\) is not bent if \(K_m(a) \neq 4.\)