Criteria for maximal nonlinearity of a function over a finite field

Abstract

Abstract An n-place function over a field with q elements is called maximally nonlinear if it has the greatest nonlinearity among all such functions. Criteria and necessary conditions for maximal nonlinearity are obtained, which imply that, for even n, the maximally nonlinear functions are bent functions, but, for q > 2, the known families of bent functions are not maximally nonlinear. For an arbitrary finite field, a relationship between the Hamming distances from a function to all affine mappings and the Fourier spectra of the nontrivial characters of the function are found.