A generalization of quasi-twisted codes: Multi-twisted codes

Cyclic codes and their various generalizations, such as quasi-twisted (QT) codes, have a special place in algebraic coding theory. Among other things, many of the best-known or optimal codes have been obtained from these classes. In this work we introduce a new generalization of QT codes that we call multi-twisted (MT) codes and study some of their basic properties. Presenting several methods of constructing codes in this class and obtaining bounds on the minimum distances, we show that there exist codes with good parameters in this class that cannot be obtained as QT or constacyclic codes. This suggests that considering this larger class in computer searches is promising for constructing codes with better parameters than currently best-known linear codes. Working with this new class of codes motivated us to consider a problem about binomials over finite fields and to discover a result that is interesting in its own right.     

Binary linear codes with few weights from Boolean functions

Boolean functions have very nice applications in coding theory and cryptography. In coding theory, Boolean functions have been used to construct linear codes in different ways. The objective of this paper is to construct binary linear codes with few weights using the defining-set approach. The defining sets of the codes presented in this paper are defined by some special Boolean functions and some additional restrictions. First, two families of binary linear codes with at most three or four weights from Boolean functions with at most three Walsh transform values are constructed and the parameters of their duals are also determined. Then several classes of binary linear codes with explicit weight enumerators are produced. Some of the binary linear codes are optimal or almost optimal according to the tables of best codes known maintained at http://www.codetables.de, and the duals of some of them are distance-optimal with respect to the sphere packing bound.

     

Binary linear codes from vectorial boolean functions and their weight distribution

Binary linear codes with good parameters have important applications in secret sharing schemes, authentication codes, association schemes, and consumer electronics and communications. In this paper, we construct several classes of binary linear codes from vectorial Boolean functions and determine their parameters, by further studying a generic construction developed by Ding et al. recently. First, by employing perfect nonlinear functions and almost bent functions, we obtain several classes of six-weight linear codes which contain the all-one codeword, and determine their weight distribution. Second, we investigate a subcode of any linear code mentioned above and consider its parameters. When the vectorial Boolean function is a perfect nonlinear function or a Gold function in odd dimension, we can completely determine the weight distribution of this subcode. Besides, our linear codes have larger dimensions than the ones by Ding et al.’s generic construction.     

Constructions of projective linear codes by the intersection and difference of sets

Projective linear codes are a special class of linear codes whose dual codes have minimum distance at least 3. Projective linear codes with only a few weights are useful in authentication codes, secret sharing schemes, data storage systems and so on. In this paper, two constructions of q-ary linear codes are presented with defining sets given by the intersection and difference of two sets. These constructions produce several families of new projective two-weight or three-weight linear codes. As applications, our projective codes can be used to construct secret sharing schemes with interesting access structures, strongly regular graphs and association schemes with three classes.     

Two-weight or three-weight binary linear codes from cyclotomic mappings

Recently, linear codes with few weights have been studied extensively. These linear codes have wide applications in secret sharing schemes and authentication codes. In this paper, we introduce a new construction of defining sets using cyclotomic mappings and construct three new classes of binary linear codes with two or three weights. We also explicitly determine the weight distributions of these codes.     

Constructions of several classes of linear codes with a few weights

Recently, linear codes with a few weights have been constructed and extensively studied due to their applications in secret sharing, authentication codes, association schemes, and strongly regular graphs. In this paper, we construct several classes of linear codes with a few weights over ${\mathbb{F}}_p$, where $p$ is an odd prime. The weight distributions of these constructed codes are also settled by applications of the theory of quadratic forms and Gauss sums over finite fields. Some of the linear codes obtained are optimal or almost optimal. The parameters of these linear codes are new in most cases. Moreover, two classes of MDS codes are obtained.     

Two-weight and three-weight linear codes based on Weil sums

Linear codes with few weights have applications in secret sharing, authentication codes, association schemes and strongly regular graphs. In this paper, several classes of two-weight and three-weight linear codes are presented and their weight distributions are determined using Weil sums. Some of the linear codes obtained are optimal or almost optimal with respect to the Griesmer bound.     

Constructing few-weight linear codes and strongly regular graphs

Linear codes with few weights have applications in data storage systems, secret sharing schemes, graph theory and so on. In this paper, we construct a class of few-weight linear codes by choosing defining sets from cyclotomic classes and we also establish few-weight linear codes by employing weakly regular bent functions. Notably, we get some codes that are minimal and we also obtain a class of two-weight optimal punctured codes with respect to the Griesmer bound. Finally, we get a class of strongly regular graphs with new parameters by using the obtained two-weight linear codes.     

Weight distributions and weight hierarchies of two classes of binary linear codes

Linear codes with a few weights can be applied to communication, consumer electronics and data storage system. In addition, the weight hierarchy of a linear code has many applications such as on the type II wire-tap channel, dealing with t-resilient functions and trellis or branch complexity of linear codes and so on. In this paper, we present a formula for computing the weight hierarchies of linear codes constructed by the generalized method of defining sets. Then, we construct two classes of binary linear codes with a few weights and determine their weight distributions and weight hierarchies completely. Some codes of them can be used in secret sharing schemes.     

Two classes of two-weight linear codes

Two-weight linear codes have many wide applications in authentication codes, association schemes, strongly regular graphs, and secret sharing schemes. In this paper, we present two classes of two-weight binary or ternary linear codes. In some cases, they are optimal or almost optimal. They can also be used to construct secret sharing schemes.     

Several classes of linear codes with few weights from the closed butterfly structure

Linear codes with few weights have applications in data storage systems, secret sharing schemes and authentication codes. In this paper, inspired by the butterfly structure [6], [29] and the works of Li, Yue and Fu [21] and Jian, Lin and Feng [19], we introduce a new defining set with the form of the closed butterfly structure and consequently we obtain three classes of 3-weight binary linear codes and a class of 4-weight binary linear codes whose dual is optimal. The lengths and weight distributions of these four classes of linear codes are completely determined by some detailed calculations on certain exponential sums. Computer experiments show that many (almost) optimal codes can be obtained from our construction.     

Improved decoding of affine-variety codes

General error locator polynomials are polynomials able to decode any correctable syndrome for a given linear code. Such polynomials are known to exist for all cyclic codes and for a large class of linear codes. We provide some decoding techniques for affine-variety codes using some multidimensional extensions of general error locator polynomials. We prove the existence of such polynomials for any correctable affine-variety code and hence for any linear code. We propose two main different approaches, that depend on the underlying geometry. We compute some interesting cases, including Hermitian codes. To prove our coding theory results, we develop a theory for special classes of zero-dimensional ideals, that can be considered generalizations of stratified ideals. Our improvement with respect to stratified ideals is twofold: we generalize from one variable to many variables and we introduce points with multiplicities.     

Galois LCD codes over finite fields

In this paper, we generalize the linear complementary dual codes (LCD codes for short) to k-Galois LCD codes, and study them by a uniform method. A necessary and sufficient condition for linear codes to be k-Galois LCD codes is obtained, two classes of k-Galois LCD MDS codes are exhibited. Then, necessary and sufficient conditions for λ-constacyclic codes being k-Galois LCD codes are characterized. Some classes of k-Galois LCD λ-constacyclic MDS codes are constructed. Finally, we study Hermitian LCD λ-constacyclic codes, and present a class of Hermitian LCD λ-constacyclic MDS codes.     

Multi-orbit cyclic subspace codes and linear sets

Cyclic subspace codes gained a lot of attention especially because they may be used in random network coding for correction of errors and erasures. Roth, Raviv and Tamo in 2018 established a connection between cyclic subspace codes (with certain parameters) and Sidon spaces. These latter objects were introduced by Bachoc, Serra and Zémor in 2017 in relation with the linear analogue of Vosper's Theorem. This connection allowed Roth, Raviv and Tamo to construct large classes of cyclic subspace codes with one or more orbits. In this paper we will investigate cyclic subspace codes associated to a set of Sidon spaces, that is cyclic subspace codes with more than one orbit. Moreover, we will also use the geometry of linear sets to provide some bounds on the parameters of a cyclic subspace code. Conversely, cyclic subspace codes are used to construct families of linear sets which extend a class of linear sets recently introduced by Napolitano, Santonastaso, Polverino and the author. This yields large classes of linear sets with a special pattern of intersection with the hyperplanes, defining rank metric and Hamming metric codes with only three distinct weights.     

Galois self-dual extended duadic constacyclic codes

Galois inner product is a generalization of the Euclidean inner product and Hermitian inner product. The theory on linear codes under Galois inner product can be applied in the constructions of MDS codes and quantum error-correcting codes. In this paper, we construct Galois self-dual codes and MDS Galois self-dual codes from extensions of constacyclic codes. First, we explicitly determine all the Type II splittings leading to all the Type II duadic constacyclic codes in two cases. Second, we propose methods to extend two classes of constacyclic codes to obtain Galois self-dual codes, and we also provide existence conditions of Galois self-dual codes which are extensions of constacyclic codes. Finally, we construct some (almost) MDS Galois self-dual codes using the above results. Some Galois self-dual codes and (almost) MDS Galois self-dual codes obtained in this paper turn out to be new.     

Enumeration of Lozenge Tilings of Hexagons with Cut-Off Corners

Motivated by the enumeration of a class of plane partitions studied by Proctor and by considerations about symmetry classes of plane partitions, we consider the problem of enumerating lozenge tilings of a hexagon with “maximal staircases” removed from some of its vertices. The case of one vertex corresponds to Proctor's problem. For two vertices there are several cases to consider, and most of them lead to nice enumeration formulas. For three or more vertices there do not seem to exist nice product formulas in general, but in one special situation a lot of factorization occurs, and we pose the problem of finding a formula for the number of tilings in this case.     

Codes over Hurwitz integers

In this study, we obtain new classes of linear codes over Hurwitz integers equipped with a new metric. We refer to the metric as the Hurwitz metric. Also, we define decoding algorithms for these codes when up to two coordinates of a transmitted code vector are affected by the error of arbitrary Hurwitz weight. The interest in the codes with respect to the Hurwitz metric is their use in coded modulation schemes based on quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM)-type constellations where the Hamming metric and the Lee metric are not appropriate.     

Linear codes using skew polynomials with automorphisms and derivations

In this work the definition of codes as modules over skew polynomial rings of automorphism type is generalized to skew polynomial rings, whose multiplication is defined using an automorphism and a derivation. This produces a more general class of codes which, in some cases, produce better distance bounds than module skew codes constructed only with an automorphism. Extending the approach of Gabidulin codes, we introduce new notions of evaluation of skew polynomials with derivations and the corresponding evaluation codes. We propose several approaches to generalize Reed-Solomon and BCH codes to module skew codes and for two classes we show that the dual of such a Reed-Solomon type skew code is an evaluation skew code. We generalize a decoding algorithm due to Gabidulin for the rank metric and derive families of Maximum Distance Separable and Maximum Rank Distance codes.