Weight Divisibility of Cyclic Codes, Highly Nonlinear Functions on F2m, and Crosscorrelation of Maximum-Length Sequences

We study [2m−1, 2m]-binary linear codes whose weights lie between w0 and 2m−w0, where w0 takes the highest possible value. Primitive cyclic codes with two zeros whose dual satisfies this property actually correspond to almost bent power functions and to pairs of maximum-length sequences with preferred crosscorrelation. We prove that, for odd m, these codes are completely characterized by their dual distance and by their weight divisibility. Using McEliece’s theorem we give some general results on the weight divisibility of duals of cyclic codes with two zeros; specifically, we exhibit some infinite families of pairs of maximum-length sequences which are not preferred.