Carleton Finite Fields eSeminar - Summer 2021 Abstracts

School of Mathematics and Statistics
Carleton University


Organized by: Daniel Panario, David Thomson, and Steven Wang.
e-mail: finitefields@math.carleton.ca

Abstracts (Fall 2021)

Speaker: Giorgos Kapetanakis (University of Thessaly)
Title: The existence of Fq-primitive points on curves using freeness
Abstract: An element of a finite cyclic group of order Q, C_Q, is called r-free (where r|Q), if it is not a p-th power of any group element for any prime divisor p of r. We introduce the set of (r,n)-free elements of C_Q, where n|Q and r|(Q/n), as the elements of the subgroup C_{Q/n} that are r-free within C_{Q/n}. Inspired by Vinogradov's expression for the characteristic function of primitive elements of the finite field Fq, we prove an analogue for the (r,n)-free elements of C_Q and obtain a lower bound for the number of elements b of Fq, such that f(b) is (r,n)-free and F(b) is (R,N)-free, where f and F are polynomials over Fq. As an application, we consider the problem of the existence of points of elliptic curves in Fq^2, whose coordinates are both primitive and provide a complete answer for the curves y^2=x^3±x. This is joint work with Stephen D. Cohen and Lucas Reis. slides ,video

Speaker: Tor Helleseth (The Selmer Center, University of Bergen)
Title: The history of the cross correlation between m-sequences: an overview
Abstract: Maximum-length sequences (or m-sequences) of period 2^m-1 are generated by linear feedback shift registers with primitive characteristic polynomials of degree m. These sequences have many important applications in modern communication systems. The most well-known property of m-sequences is their two-level ideal autocorrelation. The first major result on the cross correlation of two different m-sequences of the same period was published by Gold back in January 1968 and the result was used in constructing the famous family of Gold sequences. During more than 50 years the cross correlation between m-sequences of the same period has been intensively studied by many research groups. Many results have been obtained but still many open problems remain in this area. This talk will give an updated survey of the status of the cross correlation of m-sequences as well as some consequences of these results. slides, video

Speaker: Fabio Enrique Brochero Martinez
Title: The functional graph of some family of functions over finite fields
Abstract: Let Fq be the finite field with q=p^s elements and f: Fq -> Fq be a function. The functional graph of f is the directed graph G_f=(V, E), where V=Fq and E={(x,f(x)) : x in Fq}. The characteristics of functional graphs (number of cycles, cycle lengths, pre-cycle lengths and so n) have been studied for several different maps over finite fields, due to its applications in cryptography.
In this presentation we will present two independent results: the first one we describe completely the dynamics of the maps f(x)=x^{q+1} +/- x^2 over the finite field F{q^2} and in the second we study the functional graph of maps of the form f(x)= x^n h( x^{(q-1)/m}), where h satisfies a special condition. slides, video

Speaker: Juliane Capaverde (Universidade Federal de Rio Grande do Sul) and Ariane Masuda (New York City College of Technology)
Title: Redei permutations with the same cycle structure
Abstract: Permutation polynomials over finite fields have been extensively studied over the past decades. Among the major challenges in this area are the questions concerning their cycle structures as they capture relevant properties, both theoretically and practically. In this talk we focus on a family of permutation polynomials, the so called Rédei permutations. Although their cycle structures are known, there are other related questions that can be investigated. For example, when do two Rédei permutations have the same cycle structure? We give a characterization of such pairs, and present explicit families of Rédei permutations with the same cycle structure. We also discuss some results regarding Rédei permutations with a particularly simple cycle structure, consisting of $1$- and $j$-cycles only, when $j$ is $4$ or a prime number. The case $j = 2$ is specially important in some applications. We completely describe Rédei involutions with a prescribed cycle structure, and show that remarkably the only Rédei permutations with a unique cycle structure are the involutions. This is joint work with Virgínia Rodrigues from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. slides

Speaker: Svetla Nikova (KU Leuven)
Title: Threshold cryptography against combined physical attacks
Abstract: Recent attacks show that there is a need for protecting implementations jointly against side-channel and fault attacks. Analogously, modern MPC protocols consider active security, i.e. against malicious parties which do not only passively eavesdrop but also actively deviate from the protocol. This provides an opportunity for the field of threshold implementations to evolve with MPC and achieve provable secure implementations against combined passive and active physical attacks. In this talk we will first introduce Threshold Implementations applied to protect various ciphers against SCA and the like with Boolean functions and MPC/SSS. After that we will discuss two recent proposals for combined countermeasures: CAPA and M&M, which both start from passively secure threshold schemes and extend those with information-theoretic MAC tags for protection against active adversaries. While similar in their most basic structure, the two proposals explore very different adversary models and thus employ completely different implementation techniques. CAPA considers the field-probe-and-fault model, which is the embedded analogue of multiple parties jointly computing a function with at least one of the parties honest. Accordingly, CAPA is strongly based on the actively secure MPC protocol SPDZ and inherits its provable security properties in this model. Since this results in very expensive implementations, M&M works in a similar but more realistic adversary model and uses existing building blocks from previous passively secure implementations to build more efficient actively secure threshold cryptography. video

Speaker: Alexander Bors (Carleton University)
Title: Cycle types of complete mappings
Abstract: A complete mapping of a finite field $K$ is a bijective function $f:K\rightarrow K$ such that the function $K\rightarrow K, x\mapsto f(x)+x$, is also a bijective. Complete mappings have applications in several areas (combinatorics, cryptography, check-digit systems) and have been studied by various authors. Nonetheless, there are aspects of complete mappings about which little is known yet. An example of this are the cycle types of complete mappings -- the information into how many disjoint cycles of each given length a complete mapping can decompose.

In this talk, I will present results that were achieved recently in collaboration with Qiang Wang (also from Carleton University) and which concern the cycle types of complete mappings in two important classes of functions on finite fields: cyclotomic mappings of first order and an additive analogue thereof which we called coset-wise affine mappings. Our results provide both new examples of cycle types of complete mappings that had never been considered before and new constructions for achieving known cycle types. slides, video