New nonbinary code bounds based on divisibility arguments

For \(q,n,d \in \mathbb {N}\), let \(A_q(n,d)\) be the maximum size of a code \(C \subseteq q]^n\) with minimum distance at least d. We give a divisibility argument resulting in the new upper bounds \(A_5(8,6) \le 65\), \(A_4(11,8)\le 60\) and \(A_3(16,11) \le 29\). These in turn imply the new upper bounds \(A_5(9,6) \le 325\), \(A_5(10,6) \le 1625\), \(A_5(11,6) \le 8125\) and \(A_4(12,8) \le 240\). Furthermore, we prove that for \(\mu ,q \in \mathbb {N}\), there is a 1–1-correspondence between symmetric \((\mu ,q)\)-nets (which are certain designs) and codes \(C \subseteq q]^{\mu q}\) of size \(\mu q^2\) with minimum distance at least \(\mu q - \mu \). We derive the new upper bounds \(A_4(9,6) \le 120\) and \(A_4(10,6) \le 480\) from these ‘symmetric net’ codes.