The paired construction for Boolean functions on the slice

Let $V$ be a finite set of size $n$. We consider real functions on the "slice" $\binom{V}{k}$, which are also known as functions in the Johnson scheme. For $I \subseteq J \subseteq V$, the characteristic function of the set of all $K\in\binom{V}{k}$ with $I \subseteq K \subseteq J$ is called "basic". In this article, we investigate a construction arising as the sum of two "opposite" basic functions. In essentially all cases, these "paired" functions are Boolean. Our main result is the determination of the exact degree -- regarding a representation by an $n$-variable polynomial -- of all paired functions. The proof is elementary and does not involve any spectral methods. First, we settle the middle layer case $n=2k$ by identifying and combining various relations among the degrees involved. Then the general case is reduced to the middle layer situation by means of derived, reduced, and dual functions. Remarkably, in certain situations, the degree is strictly smaller than what is guaranteed by the elementary upper bound for the sum of functions. This makes paired functions good candidates for fixed-degree Boolean functions of small support size. As it turns out, for $n = 2k$ and even degree $t \notin \{0,k\}$, paired functions provide the smallest known non-zero Boolean functions, surpassing the $t$-pencils, which is the smallest known construction in all other cases.