A systematic construction approach for all 4×4\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$4\times 4$$\end{document} involutory MDS matrices

Maximum distance separable (MDS) matrices play a crucial role not only in coding theory but also in the design of block ciphers and hash functions. Of particular interest are involutory MDS matrices, which facilitate the use of a single circuit for both encryption and decryption in hardware implementations. In this article, we present several characterizations of involutory MDS matrices of even order. Additionally, we introduce a new matrix form for obtaining all involutory MDS matrices of even order and compare it with other matrix forms available in the literature. We then propose a technique to systematically construct all 4×4\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$4 \times 4$$\end{document} involutory MDS matrices over a finite field F2m\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\mathbb {F}_{2^m}$$\end{document}. This method significantly reduces the search space by focusing on involutory MDS class representative matrices, leading to the generation of all such matrices within a substantially smaller set compared to considering all 4×4\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$4 \times 4$$\end{document} involutory matrices. Specifically, our approach involves searching for these representative matrices within a set of cardinality (2m-1)5\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$(2^m-1)^5$$\end{document}. Through this method, we provide an explicit enumeration of the total number of 4×4\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$4 \times 4$$\end{document} involutory MDS matrices over F2m\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\mathbb {F}_{2^m}$$\end{document} for m=3,4,…,8\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$m=3,4,\ldots ,8$$\end{document}.