Normality of 8-Bit Bent Function

Abstract

Bent functions are Boolean functions in an even number of variables that are indicators of Hadamard difference sets in elementary abelian 2-groups. A bent function in m variables is said to be normal if it is constant on an affine space of dimension m/2. In this paper, we demonstrate that all bent functions in m = 8 variables -- whose exact count, determined by Langevin and Leander (Des. Codes Cryptogr. 59(1--3): 193--205, 2011), is approximately $2^106$ share a common algebraic property: every 8-variable bent function is normal, up to the addition of a linear function. With this result, we complete the analysis of the normality of bent functions for the last unresolvedcase, m= 8. It is already known that all bent functions in m variables are normal for m <= 6, while for m > = 10, there exist bent functions that cannot be made normal by adding linear functions. Consequently, we provide a complete solution to an open problem by Charpin (J. Complex. 20(2-3): 245-265, 2004)