The 7th International Workshop on

Boolean Functions and their Applications (BFA)

September 11-16, 2022, Kviknes hotel, Balestrand, Norway

Organized by The Selmer Center

Boolean functions and more generally all the discrete structures used in error correcting coding, cryptography or communications, are highly active areas of research. The workshop Boolean Functions and their Applications (BFA) is to provide a forum for researchers who are working on discrete functions and structures, particularly on Boolean functions, to exchange ideas and interests in open problems, and to further explore their applications in cryptography, error correcting codes and communications.

The event is at the moment planned to be hybrid, that is, both physical and online participation is possible. There is no registration fee for online participation although all participants must register (for physical or for online participation).

All participants who wish to contribute a talk of 15-20 minutes are invited to submit a 4-5 page extended abstract. We request previously unpublished results on all aspects of discrete structures, particularly on Boolean functions and their applications in cryptography, coding theory, combinatorics, quantum computing, etc. Topics include but are not limited to:

foundational theory of Boolean functions and discrete structures;
the design, proposal, and analysis of cryptographically significant (vectorial) Boolean functions;
the theory and construction of quantum Boolean functions;
the theory of finite fields and its applications in cryptography and coding theory;
the study of applications of (vectorial) Boolean functions to cryptography, codes, and other discrete structures.

After the workshop, all participants will be invited to submit a paper to a special issue on Boolean Functions and their Applications in the journal Cryptography and Communications. You can find the call for papers here.

Important Dates

Submission deadline	April 30, 2022
Acceptance notification	June 30, 2022
Camera-ready submission (easychair)	August 15, 2022
Video submission of presentations deadline	August 25, 2022
Registration deadline for physical participation	August 31, 2022
BFA 2022	September 11 – September 16, 2022

Travel information

Travel Schedule

Those attending the conference in person can depart by speedboat from Bergen Strandkaiterminalen on Sunday, September 11 at 16:30. The arrival is estimated at 20:25 at Balestrand. The Hotel Kviknes is just a few minutes walk from the pier. The only alternative departure time is 08:00, with an estimated arrival at 11:50.
The workshop will end on Friday, September 16. The first available departure after the conference is on Saturday morning at 07:50, with an estimated arrival at 11:50 at Bergen Strandkaiterminalen. Alternative departures are at 16:50, either on Friday or Saturday. In these cases, the arrival is estimated at 20:45 at Bergen Strandkaiterminalen.
Tickets can be purchased online and the official timetables for summer 2022 are now available if you wish to plan your travel at a different time or day.

Travelling by bus or a combination of bus and train is also possible, but not recommended.

Travel through Bergen Lufthavn

Participants outside of Bergen can reach the city by plane landing at Bergen Lufthavn.

Participants landing in Bergen Lufthavn can use the bybanen to reach the city centre and the Strandkaiterminalen. The bybanen stop is right outside of the airport and you should travel from the airport to “Byparken”, the last stop of the bybanen. Trains travel every 15 minutes for most of the day, but you can also check the timetables provided by the operator, or plan your route using the dedicated route planner app.

The bybanen offers both a route planner app and a ticket purchasing app, that can be downloaded here. The ticket to the city centre is a “Zone A” ticket. Mind that tickets purchased through the App are immediately valid upon purchase, so you should only buy them once you are ready to leave the airport. Tickets can also be purchased at vending machines at the airport.

Travel regulations for entering Norway

To the date of Wed. 16 February, there are no travel restrictions to Norway.

Any changes to these conditions will be reported here, but we strongly advise participants who are not Norwegian residents to make sure if any restrictions apply before travelling using the UDI portal or helsenorge.

Confirmed invited speakers

Christof Beierle, Ruhr University Bochum
Claude Carlet, Université Paris 8, University of Bergen
Ondřej Čepek, Charles University in Prague
Patrick Felke, University of Applied Sciences Emden/Leer
Lukas Kölsch, University of South Florida
Gregor Leander, Ruhr University Bochum
Sihem Mesnager, University of Paris VIII
Stjepan Picek, Radboud University

Committees

General chairs

Lilya Budaghyan, University of Bergen
Tor Helleseth, University of Bergen

Program chairs

Claude Carlet, Université Paris 8, and University of Bergen
Wilfried Meidl, Sabanci University

Program committee

Christof Beierle, Ruhr University Bochum
Marco Calderini, University of Trento
Robert Coulter, University of Delaware
Faruk Göloglu, Charles University in Prague
Nikolay Kaleyski, University of Bergen
Daniel Katz, California State University
Chunlei Li, University of Bergen
Petr Lisonek, Simon Fraser University
Subhamoy Maitra, Indian Statistical Institute
Svetla Nikova, KU Leuven, and University of Bergen
Daniel Panario, Carleton University
Leo Perrin, INRIA
Alexander Pott, Otto von Guericke University
Yue Zhou, National University of Defense Technology
Pante Stanica, Naval Postgraduate School
Natalia Tokareva, Russian Academy of Sciences
Irene Villa, University of Trento

Organizing committee

Diana Davidova
Nikolay Kaleyski
Enrico Piccione
Samuele Andreoli

Accepted abstracts

Chunlei Li, Constanza Riera and Pantelimon Stanica. Dillon’s switching method generalized to c-differentials
Patrick Solé. A notion of bent sequences based on Hadamard matrices
Irene Villa, Marco Calderini and Kangquan Li. Two new families of quadratic APN functions over $\mathbb{F}_{2^{2m}}$
Alireza Mehrdad, Joan Daemen and Silvia Mella. Distribution of Linear Approximations over the Non-linear Mapping Chi
Xiang-Dong Hou. Some Algebraic Questions about the Reed-Muller Code
Kirpa Garg, Sartaj Ul Hasan and Pantelimon Stanica. Boomerang uniformity of some classes of functions
Jaeseong Jeong, Namhun Koo and Soonhak Kwon. On cubic APcN permutations over finite fields of even characteristic
Ana Salagean and Percy Reyes-Paredes. Probabilistic estimation of the degree of Boolean functions
Alexandr Polujan and Alexander Pott. Towards the Classification of Quadratic Vectorial Bent Functions in 8 Variables
Valérie Gillot and Philippe Langevin. Classification of Boolean functions
Li-An Chen and Robert Coulter. On the differential uniformity of the Wan-Lidl permutation polynomials
Robert Christian Subroto. An Algebraic Approach to Symmetric Linear Layers in Cryptographic Primitives
Meltem Sonmez Turan. New Bounds on the Multiplicative Complexity of Boolean functions
Nurdagül Anbar, Tekgül Kalaycı and Wilfried Meidl. Bent partitions, semifields, and association schemes
Abbas Alhakim and Janusz Szmidt. Euler Tour Graph and Multi de Bruijn Sequences
Marie Heggebakk and Nikolay Kaleyski. Testing linear and affine equivalence
Aleksandr Kutsenko. On subfunctions of self-dual bent functions and the existence of self-dual generalized bent functions
Alexander Shaporenko. New approaches to the study of the “bent sum decomposition problem”
René Rodríguez, Enes Pasalic, Fengrong Zhang and Yongzhuang Wei. Minimal p-ary linear codes and further results on non-covering permutations
Nikolay Kaleyski, Kjetil Nesheim and Pantelimon Stanica. A doubly-infinite family of 0-APN monomials
Ferruh Özbudak and Kübra Kaytancı. The c-Differential Uniformity of the Perturbed Inverse Function via a Trace Function Tr$\big(\frac{x^2}{x+1}\big)$
Jyotirmoy Basak, Subhamoy Maitra, Prabal Paul and Animesh Roy. Analysis of Boolean Functions Related to Binary Input Binary Output Two-party Nonlocal Games
Ana Salagean and Ferruh Ozbudak. Further Constructions and Characterizations of Generalized Almost Perfect Nonlinear Functions

Program

Technical program

	Monday 12/9	Tuesday 13/9	Wednesday 14/9	Thursday 15/9	Friday 16/9
09.30 – 10.20	Welcome Gregor Leander Backdoors in symmetric ciphers abstract slides	Claude Carlet Some uses of Boolean functions and the problem of constructing them abstract slides	Full day excursion	Patrick Felke Crypto Trojans & Co, By-magic Crypto Standards and BFA abstract slides video	Lukas Kölsch Techniques for proving equivalences of Boolean functions abstract slides video
10.20 – 10.45	Chunlei Li, Constanza Riera and Pantelimon Stanica. Dillon’s switching method generalized to c-differentialsabstract slides	Irene Villa, Marco Calderini and Kangquan Li. Two new families of quadratic APN functions over F_2^2mabstract slides		Patrick Solé. A notion of bent sequences based on Hadamard matricesabstract slides video	René Rodríguez, Enes Pasalic, Fengrong Zhang and Yongzhuang Wei. Minimal p-ary linear codes and further results on non-covering permutationsabstract slides video
10.45 – 11.05	Break	Break		Break	Break
11.05 – 11.30	Li-An Chen and Robert Coulter. On the differential uniformity of the Wan-Lidl permutation polynomialsabstract slides	Nikolay Kaleyski, Kjetil Nesheim and Pantelimon Stanica. A doubly-infinite family of 0-APN monomialsabstract slides		Nurdagül Anbar, Tekgül Kalaycı and Wilfried Meidl. Bent partitions, semifields, and association schemesabstract slides	Robert Christian Subroto. An Algebraic Approach to Symmetric Linear Layers in Cryptographic Primitivesabstract slides video
11.30 – 11.55	Kirpa Garg, Sartaj Ul Hasan and Pantelimon Stanica. Boomerang uniformity of some classes of functionsabstract slides	Ana Salagean and Ferruh Ozbudak. Further Constructions and Characterizations of Generalized Almost Perfect Nonlinear Functionsabstract slides		Alexandr Polujan and Alexander Pott. Towards the Classification of Quadratic Vectorial Bent Functions in 8 Variablesabstract slides	Jyotirmoy Basak, Subhamoy Maitra, Prabal Paul and Animesh Roy. Analysis of Boolean Functions Related to Binary Input Binary Output Two-party Nonlocal Gamesabstract slides video
11.55 – 14.00	Lunch	Lunch		Lunch	Lunch
14.00 – 14.25	Sihem Mesnager Panorama on hyper-bent Boolean functions abstract	Christof Beierle Decomposing Linear Layers abstract slides		Stjepan Picek More Methods to Construct Bent Boolean Functions abstract slides video	Ondřej Čepek Knowledge compilation: a brief overview abstract slides video
14.25 – 14.50
14.50 – 15.15	Jaeseong Jeong, Namhun Koo and Soonhak Kwon. On cubic APcN permutations over finite fields of even characteristicabstract slides	Alireza Mehrdad, Joan Daemen and Silvia Mella. Distribution of Linear Approximations over the Non-linear Mapping Chiabstract slides video		Abbas Alhakim and Janusz Szmidt. Euler Tour Graph and Multi de Bruijn Sequencesabstract slides video	Xiang-Dong Hou. Some Algebraic Questions about the Reed-Muller Code abstract video
15.15 – 15.35	Break	Break		Break	Break
15.35 – 16.00	Marie Heggebakk and Nikolay Kaleyski. Testing linear and affine equivalenceabstract slides	Meltem Sonmez Turan. New Bounds on the Multiplicative Complexity of Boolean functionsabstract video		Aleksandr Kutsenko. On subfunctions of self-dual bent functions and the existence of self-dual generalized bent functionsabstract video	Ferruh Özbudak and Kübra Kaytancı. The c-Differential Uniformity of the Perturbed Inverse Function via a Trace Function Tr( x²⁄x+1) abstract video
16.00 – 16.25	*Ana Salagean and Percy Reyes-Paredes.* Probabilistic estimation of the degree of Boolean functionsabstract slides	Valérie Gillot and Philippe Langevin. Classification of Boolean functionsabstract video		Alexander Shaporenko. New approaches to the study of the “bent sum decomposition problem”abstract video	Farewell

Excursion (Wednesday, September 14, 2022)

08.30 – 09.00	Excursion starts	Departure from the Kviknes hotel on foot.
09.00 – 11.30	Heritage walk and Cider tasting	Guided tour from the village centre to the Cider House.
11.30 – 12.00	Walk to the Ferry port
12.00 – 17.00	Glacier Tour and Lunch	A magical Fjord Cruise through a fantastic fjord landscape. We will experience the Bøya Glacier up close and visit the Norwegian Glacier Museum. Warm lunch on the Fjordcruise boat is included.
17.00	Excursion ends	Walk to the Kviknes hotel.
19.00	Banquet

Registration

Physical participation

Physical registration is now closed.

Online participation

Online registration is now closed. If you have not registered in time, and would still like to receive the participation link, please contact Enrico Piccione (firstname.surname@uib.no) with your request.

Accommodation at the Kviknes hotel

The prices for participants of BFA that would like to stay at the Kviknes hotel are as follows:

Single room with breakfast: 1355 NOK per day
Single room with half board (breakfast and dinner): 1675 NOK per day
Double room with breakfast: 1030 NOK per person per day
Double room with half board (breakfast and dinner): 1350 NOK per person per day
Double room with full board (for accompanying people not attending the conference): 1480 NOK per day
Dinner only: 645 NOK per day

To reserve a room, participants should contact the hotel directly by writing to booking@kviknes.no, and refer to confirmation number 971987. Communication via email is preferable, but it is also possible to call the hotel by phone at (+47) 57 69 42 00. The booking can be cancelled up to two days prior to check-in.