Two-tuple balance of non-binary sequences with ideal two-level autocorrelation

Let p be a prime, q = p(m) and F-q be the finite field with q elements. In this paper, we will consider q-ary sequences of period q(n)-1 for q > 2 and study their various balance properties: symbol-balance, difference-balance, and two-tuple-balance properties. The array structure of the sequences is introduced, and various implications between these balance properties and the array structure are proved. Specifically, we prove that if a q-ary sequence of period q(n)-1 is difference-balanced and has the "cyclic" array structure then it is two-tuple-balanced. We conjecture that a difference-balanced q-ary sequence of period q(n)-1 must have the cyclic array structure. The conjecture is confirmed with respect to all of the known q-ary sequences which are difference-balanced, in particular, which have the ideal two-level autocorrelation function when q = p. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.