Resolving a conjecture on quadratic APN functions and a new quadratic $(n,n)$-function associated to crooked functions
We say an $(n,n)$-function $F \colon \mathbb{F}_2^n \to \mathbb{F}_2^n$ is a crooked function if for any nonzero $a \in \mathbb{F}_2^n$, the image of $D_aF(x)=F(x)+F(x+a)$ is an affine hyperplane. The only known examples of crooked functions are all quadratic almost perfect nonlinear (APN), or equivalently, for every k...