Hyper-bent functions via Dillon-like exponents

This paper is devoted to hyper-bent functions with multiple trace terms (including binomial functions) via Dillon-like exponents. We show how the approach developed by Mesnager to extend the Charpin-Gong family, which was also used by Wang et al. to obtain another similar extension, fits in a much more general setting. To this end, we first explain how the original restriction for Charpin-Gong criterion can be weakened before generalizing the Mesnager approach to arbitrary Dillon-like exponents. Afterward, we tackle the problem of devising infinite families of extension degrees for which a given exponent is valid and apply these results not only to reprove straightforwardly the results of Mesnager, and Wang et al., but also to characterize the hyper-bentness of new infinite classes of Boolean functions.