Digital Commons Network^™

On Properties Of Weil Sums Of Binomials, Liem P. Nguyen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores questions regarding the Weil sum of binomials, a finite field character sum originated from information theory. The Weil spectrum counts distinct values of the Weil sum through invertible elements in the finite field. The value of these sums and the size of the Weil spectrum are of particular interest, as they link problems in information theory, coding theory, and cryptography to other areas of math such as number theory and arithmetic geometry. In the setting of Niho exponents, we prove the Vanishing Conjecture of Helleseth ($1971$) on the presence of zero values in the Weil spectrum and …