Differential uniformity properties of some classes of permutation polynomials

Abstract

The notion of $c$-differential uniformity has recently received a lot of attention since its proposal~\cite{Ellingsen}, and recently a characterization of perfect $c$-nonlinear functions in terms of difference sets in some quasigroups was obtained in~\cite{AMS22}. Independent of their applications as a measure for certain statistical biases, the construction of functions, especially permutations, with low $c$-differential uniformity is an interesting mathematical problem in this area, and recent work has focused heavily in this direction. We provide a few classes of permutation polynomials with low $c$-differential uniformity. The used technique involves handling various Weil sums, as well as analyzing some equations in finite fields, and we believe these can be of independent interest.