Value Distributions of Exponential Sums From Perfect Nonlinear Functions and Their Applications

In this paper we present a unified way to determine the values and their multiplicities of the exponential sums Sigma_xisinF(q)zeta_p ^Tr(af(x)+bx)(a,bisinF_q,q=p^m,pges3) for all perfect nonlinear functions f which is a Dembowski-Ostrom polynomial or p = 3,f=^x(3(k)+1)/2 where k is odd and (k,m)=1. As applications, we determine (1) the correlation distribution of the m-sequence {a_lambda=Tr(gamma^lambda)}(lambda=0,1,...) and the sequence {b_lambda=Tr(f(gamma^lambda))}(lambda=0,1,...) over F_p where gamma is a primitive element of F_q and (2) the weight distributions of the linear codes over F_p defined by f.