Abstract:

Digital signatures in encryption/decryption schemes act like signatures on physical paper. When long messages are exchanged, signatures of the same length are required for verification of messages. The use of hashing algorithms allows for a fixed-length “fingerprint” of a message to be used instead. In exploring the structure of popular hashing algorithms, the use of rotationally symmetric Booleans functions (RSBFs) in this will make computations more efficient. In this talk, we explore a matrix that is used when discussing properties of RSBFs and answer a question which was posed about this matrix. We then discuss this matrix in terms of character theory and discuss properties we noticed when analyzing the formula in terms of characters of a certain group.