Fq-linear codes over Fq-algebras

Huffman (2013) [12] studied ${\mathbb{F}}_q$-linear codes over ${\mathbb{F}}_{q^m}$ and he proved the MacWilliams identity for these codes with respect to ordinary and Hermitian trace inner products. Let S be a finite commutative ${\mathbb{F}}_q$-algebra. An ${\mathbb{F}}_q$-linear code over S of length n is an ${\mathbb{F}}_q$-submodule of $S^n$. In this paper, we study ${\mathbb{F}}_q$-linear codes over S. We obtain some bounds on minimum distance of these codes, and some large classes of MDR codes are introduced. We generalize the ordinary and Hermitian trace products over ${\mathbb{F}}_q$-algebras and we prove the MacWilliams identity with respect to the generalized form. In particular, we obtain Huffman's results on the MacWilliams identity. Among other results, we give a theory to construct a class of quantum codes and the structure of ${\mathbb{F}}_q$-linear codes over finite commutative graded ${\mathbb{F}}_q$-algebras.     

On the existence of primitive completely normal bases of finite fields

Let ${\mathbb{F}}_q$ be the finite field of characteristic p with q elements and ${\mathbb{F}}_{q^n}$ its extension of degree n. We prove that there exists a primitive element of ${\mathbb{F}}_{q^n}$ that produces a completely normal basis of ${\mathbb{F}}_{q^n}$ over ${\mathbb{F}}_q$, provided that $n=p^{?}m$ with $(m,p)=1$ and $q>m$.     

Highly nonlinear functions over finite fields

We consider a generalisation of a conjecture by Patterson and Wiedemann from 1983 on the Hamming distance of a function from ${\mathbb{F}}_q^n$ to ${\mathbb{F}}_q$ to the set of affine functions from ${\mathbb{F}}_q^n$ to ${\mathbb{F}}_q$. We prove the conjecture for each q such that the characteristic of ${\mathbb{F}}_q$ lies in a subset of the primes with density 1 and we prove the conjecture for all q by assuming the generalised Riemann hypothesis. Roughly speaking, we show the existence of functions for which the distance to the affine functions is maximised when n tends to infinity. This also determines the asymptotic behaviour of the covering radius of the $[q^n,n+1]$ Reed-Muller code over ${\mathbb{F}}_q$ and so answers a question raised by Leducq in 2013. Our results extend the case $q=2$, which was recently proved by the author and which corresponds to the original conjecture by Patterson and Wiedemann. Our proof combines evaluations of Gauss sums in the semiprimitive case, probabilistic arguments, and methods from discrepancy theory.     

Perfect squares representing the number of rational points on elliptic curves over finite field extensions

Let q be a perfect power of a prime number p and $E({\mathbb{F}}_q)$ be an elliptic curve over ${\mathbb{F}}_q$ given by the equation $y^2=x^3+Ax+B$. For a positive integer n we denote by $\mathrm{\#}E({\mathbb{F}}_{q^n})$ the number of rational points on E (including infinity) over the extension ${\mathbb{F}}_{q^n}$. Under a mild technical condition, we show that the sequence ${\{\mathrm{\#}E({\mathbb{F}}_{q^n})\}}_{n>0}$ contains at most 10²⁰⁰ perfect squares. If the mild condition is not satisfied, then $\mathrm{\#}E({\mathbb{F}}_{q^n})$ is a perfect square for infinitely many n including all the multiples of 12. Our proof uses a quantitative version of the Subspace Theorem. We also find all the perfect squares for all such sequences in the range $q<50$ and $n\le 1000$.     

Permutation binomials of the form xr(xq−1 + a) over Fqe

We present several existence and nonexistence results for permutation binomials of the form $x^r(x^{q-1}+a)$, where $e\ge 2$ and $a\in {\mathbb{F}}_{q^e}^{⁎}$. As a consequence, we obtain a complete characterization of such permutation binomials over ${\mathbb{F}}_{q^2}$, ${\mathbb{F}}_{q^3}$, ${\mathbb{F}}_{q^4}$, ${\mathbb{F}}_{p^5}$, and ${\mathbb{F}}_{p^6}$, where p is an odd prime.     

Linearized trinomials with maximum kernel

Linearized polynomials have attracted a lot of attention because of their applications in both geometric and algebraic areas. Let q be a prime power, n be a positive integer and σ be a generator of $\mathrm{Gal}({\mathbb{F}}_{q^n}:{\mathbb{F}}_q)$. In this paper we provide closed formulas for the coefficients of a σ-trinomial f over ${\mathbb{F}}_{q^n}$ which ensure that the dimension of the kernel of f equals its σ-degree, that is linearized polynomials with maximum kernel. As a consequence, we present explicit examples of linearized trinomials with maximum kernel and characterize those having σ-degree 3 and 4. Our techniques rely on the tools developed in [24]. Finally, we apply these results to investigate a class of rank metric codes introduced in [8], to construct quasi-subfield polynomials and cyclic subspace codes, obtaining new explicit constructions to the conjecture posed in [37].     

The cotype zeta function of Zd

We give an asymptotic formula for the number of sublattices $\Lambda \subseteq {\mathbb{Z}}^d$ of index at most $X$ for which ${\mathbb{Z}}^d/\Lambda$ has rank at most $m$, answering a question of Nguyen and Shparlinski. We compare this result to work of Stanley and Wang on Smith normal forms of random integral matrices and discuss connections to the Cohen–Lenstra heuristics. Our arguments are based on Petrogradsky’s formulas for the cotype zeta function of ${\mathbb{Z}}^d$, a multivariable generalization of the subgroup growth zeta function of ${\mathbb{Z}}^d$.     

On the symbol-pair distances of repeated-root constacyclic codes of length 2ps

Let $p$ be an odd prime, and $\lambda$ be a nonzero element of the finite field ${\mathbb{F}}_{p^m}$. The $\lambda$-constacyclic codes of length $2p^s$ over ${\mathbb{F}}_{p^m}$ are classified as the ideals of quotient ring $\frac{{\mathbb{F}}_{p^m}\left[x\right]}{〈x^{2p^s}?\lambda 〉}$ in terms of their generator polynomials. Based on these generator polynomials, the symbol-pair distances of all such $\lambda$-constacyclic codes of length $2p^s$ are obtained in this paper. As an application, all MDS symbol-pair constacyclic codes of length $2p^s$ over ${\mathbb{F}}_{p^m}$ are established, which produce many new MDS symbol-pair codes with good parameters.