New P$c$N and AP$c$N functions over finite fields

Abstract

Functions with low $c$-differential uniformity were proposed in $2020$ and attracted lots of attention, especially the P$c$N and AP$c$N functions, due to their applications in cryptography. The objective of this paper is to study P$c$N and AP$c$N functions. As a consequence, we propose a class of P$c$N functions and four classes of AP$c$N functions by using the cyclotomic technique and the switch method. In addition, four classes of P$c$N or AP$c$N functions are presented by virtue of (generalized) AGW criterion.