Multivariate Cryptography, as one of the main candidates for establishing post-quantum cryptosystems, provides strong, efficient and well-understood digital signature schemes such as UOV, Rainbow, and Gui. While Gui provides very short signatures, it is, for efficiency reasons, restricted to very small finite fields, which makes it hard to scale it to higher levels of security and leads to large key sizes. In this paper we propose a signature scheme called HMFEv (“Hidden Medium Field Equations”), which can be seen as a multivariate version of HFEv. We obtain our scheme by applying the Vinegar Variation to the MultiHFE encryption scheme of Chen et al. We show both theoretically and by experiments that our new scheme is secure against direct and Rank attacks. In contrast to other schemes of the HFE family such as Gui, HMFEv can be defined over arbitrary base fields and therefore is much more efficient in terms of both performance and memory requirements. Our scheme is therefore a good candidate for the upcoming standardization of post-quantum signature schemes.

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Point interactions described by formal shaped potentials were used in quantum mechanics from the early thirties. It lasted several decades, however, until a proper way to handle the corresponding Schrdinger operators was found. Following the observation of Berezin and Faddeev [4], the problem was studied systematically in the eighties. The results are summarized in the monograph [1], references to some recent work are given, eg, in [2, 8]. In its present form the pointinteraction method represents a versatile tool for constructing solvable models whose power has not been yet, to our opinion, appreciated fully in the physical community. Within the standard quantum mechanical formalism point interactions can be constructed as long as the configuration space dimension does not exceed three, and they can be interpreted as limits of suitable families of squeezed potentials. In the onedimensional case the limiting argument admits a straightforward interpretation, because the pointinteraction coupling constant is just the integral of the approximating potential: a slow particle on the line with a wellspread wavefunction sees only the average value of a localized potential. In distinction to that the approximation by scaled potentials in dimension two and three requires existence of a zeroenergy resonance and a particular couplingconstant renormalization; a detailed discussion of the related mathematical problems can be found in [1, 9]. This gives these point interactions a flavour of something exceptional, for instance, one is led to believe that they cannot be used to model welllocalized repulsive potentials. That would have consequences

We study a charged two-dimensional particle confined to a straight parabolic-potential channel and exposed to a homogeneous magnetic field under the influence of a potential perturbation W. If W is bounded and periodic along the channel, a perturbative argument yields the absolute continuity of the bottom of the spectrum. We show that it can have any finite number of open gaps provided that the confining potential is sufficiently strong. However, if W depends on the periodic variable only, we prove by the Thomas argument that the whole spectrum is absolutely continuous, irrespective of the size of the perturbation. On the other hand, if W is small and satisfies a weak localization condition in the the longitudinal direction, we prove by the Mourre method that a part of the absolutely continuous spectrum persists.

We study the behavior of a quantum particle confined to a hard-wall strip of a constant width in which there is a finite number<i>N</i>of point perturbations. Constructing the resolvent of the corresponding Hamiltonian by means of Krein's formula, we analyze its spectral and scattering properties. The bound state problem is analogous to that of point interactions in the plane: since a two-dimensional point interaction is never repulsive, there are<i>m</i>discrete eigenvalues, 1<i>m</i><i>N</i>, the lowest of which is nondegenerate. On the other hand, due to the presence of the boundary the point interactions give rise to infinite series of resonances; if the coupling is weak they approach the thresholds of higher transverse modes. We derive also spectral and scattering properties for point perturbations in several related models: a cylindrical surface, both of a finite and of an infinite height, threaded by a magnetic flux, and a straight strip which

We sketch here two mathematical models intended to describe the point-contact spectroscopical experiments. A new item is added to the list of recently discovered applications of the self-adjoint extensions theory.

We consider a Schrdinger particle on a graph consisting of <i>N</i> links joined at a single point. Each link supports a real locally integrable potential <i>V</i> _<i>j</i>; the self-adjointness is ensured by the type boundary condition at the vertex. If all the links are semi-infinite and ideally coupled, the potential decays as <i>x</i> ¹ along each of them, is nonrepulsive in the mean and weak enough, the corresponding Schrdinger operator has a single negative eigenvalue; we find its asymptotic behavior. We also derive a bound on the number of bound states and explain how the coupling constant may be interpreted in terms of a family of squeezed potentials.

We investigate a charged two-dimensional particle in a homogeneous magnetic field interacting with a periodic array of point obstacles. We show that while Landau levels remain to be infinitely degenerate eigenvalues, between them the system has bands of absolutely continuous spectrum and exhibits thus a transport along the array. We also compute the band functions and the corresponding probability current.

We consider an open quantum dot modeled by a straight hard-wall channel with a potential well. If this potential depends on the longitudinal variable only, the system exhibits embedded eigenvalues. They turn into resonances if the symmetry is violated, either by a magnetic field or by deformation of the well. We construct a perturbation theory of these resonances in the case of a weak perturbation and discuss other properties of the model.

The most general admissible boundary conditions are derived for an idealized AharonovBohm flux intersecting the plane at the origin on the background of a homogeneous magnetic field. A standard technique based on self-adjoint extensions yields a four-parameter family of boundary conditions; the other two parameters of the model are the AharonovBohm flux and the homogeneous magnetic field. The generalized boundary conditions may be regarded as a combination of the AharonovBohm effect with a point interaction. Spectral properties of the derived Hamtonians are studied in detail.