Let \(R\) be a ring with identity \(1 \neq 0\). We call a non-zero element \(a \in R\) a unit if there exists a non-zero element \(b \in R\) for which \[ab=1\] remark (sidenote: The identity element \(1\) of \(R\) is by definition, a unit. )
Let \(A\) be a set , and let \(\ast:A \times A \rightarrow A\) and \(\star:A \times A \rightarrow A\) be binary operations . We say that \(\star\) distributes over \(\ast\) provided that it left distributes and right distributes .
Let \(A\) be a set , and let \(\ast:A \times A \rightarrow A\) and \(\star:A \times A \rightarrow A\) be binary operations . We say that \(\star\) right distributes over \(\ast\) provided for any \(a,b,c \in A\): \[ (b \ast c) \star a=(b \star a) \ast (c \star a) \]
Let \(A\) be a set , and let \(\ast:A \times A \rightarrow A\) and \(\star:A \times A \rightarrow A\) be binary operations . We say that \(\star\) left distributes over \(\ast\) provided for any \(a,b,c \in A\): \[ a \star (b \ast c)=(a \star b) \ast (a \star c) \]
A ring with identity \(R\) is called a division ring if \(1 \neq 0\), and every element \(a \in R\) has an inverse element under the operation \( \cdot: R \times R \rightarrow R \).
A ring \(R\) is said to have identity if \(R\) has an identity element under the binary operation \( \cdot: R \times R \rightarrow R \). We denote the identity element of \(R\) under \( \cdot: R \times R \rightarrow R \) by \(1\).
A ring is a non-empty set \(R\) together with two binary operations \(+:R \times R \rightarrow R\) and \(\cdot:R \times R \rightarrow R\) such that:
(1). \(R\) is an Abelian group under the operation \(+:R \times R \rightarrow R\). Moreover the identity is denoted \(0\) and the inverse elements are denoted \(-a\), for all \(a \in R\).
(2). For every \(a,b \in R\), \( a \cdot b \in R\), and the operation \(\cdot:R \times R \rightarrow R\) is associative .
Let \(f:\mathbb{F}_{p^m} \rightarrow \mathbb{F}_{p^n}\) be an \((m,n,p)\)-function , and take \(a \in \mathbb{F}_{p^m}\). The derivative of \(f\) in the direction of \(a\) is defined to be: \[ D_a{f(x)}=f(x+a)-f(x) \]
Given \( \delta \in \Z^+ \), we call an \( (m,n,p) \)-function differentially \(\delta\)-uniform if for every nonzero \( a \in \mathbb{F}_{p^m} \), and for every \( b \in \mathbb{F}_{p^n} \), the difference equation: \[ D_a{f(x)}=b \] has at most \(\delta\)-solutions.
We define an \( (m,n) \)-Boolean function to be an \( (m,n,2) \)-function . We also call \( (m,n) \)-Boolean functions Substitution boxes (or S-boxes).