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Boolean functions derived from Fermat quotients

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Abstract

We study Boolean functions derived from Fermat quotients modulo p using the Legendre symbol. We prove bounds on several complexity measures for these Boolean functions: the nonlinearity, sparsity, average sensitivity, and combinatorial complexity. Our main tools are bounds on character sums of Fermat quotients modulo p.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Igor Shparlinski for pointing to the problem of estimating the nonlinearity of these Boolean functions. This work was written during a visit of the first author to RICAM. He wishes to thank the Austrian Academy of Sciences for hospitality and financial support.

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Correspondence to Arne Winterhof.

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Aly, H., Winterhof, A. Boolean functions derived from Fermat quotients. Cryptogr. Commun. 3, 165–174 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12095-011-0043-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12095-011-0043-5

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