Maximum rank-distance (MRD) codes are extremal codes in the space of $m\times n$ matrices over a finite field, equipped with the rank metric. Up to generalizations, the classical examples of such codes were constructed in the 1970s and are today known as Gabidulin codes. Motivated by several recent approaches to construct MRD codes that are inequivalent to Gabidulin codes, we study the equivalence issue for Gabidulin codes themselves. This shows in particular that the family of Gabidulin codes already contains a huge subset of MRD codes that are pairwise inequivalent, provided that $2\le m\le n-2$.
The tensor rank of some Gabidulin codes of small dimension is investigated. In particular, we determine the tensor rank of any rank metric code equivalent to an $8$-dimensional $\mathbb{F}_q$-linear generalized Gabidulin code in $\mathbb{F}_{q}^{4\times4}$. This shows that such a code is never minimum tensor rank. In this way, we detect the first infinite family of Gabidulin codes which are not minimum tensor rank.
Wachter-Zeh in [42], and later together with Raviv [31], proved that Gabidulin codes cannot be efficiently list decoded for any radius $τ$, providing that $τ$ is large enough. Also, they proved that there are infinitely many choices of the parameters for which Gabidulin codes cannot be efficiently list decoded at all. Subsequently, in [41] these results have been extended to the family of generalized Gabidulin codes and to further family of MRD-codes. In this paper, we provide bounds on the list size of rank-metric codes containing generalized Gabidulin codes in order to determine whether or n…
Let $\mathcal{C}$ be a set of $m$ by $n$ matrices over $\mathbb{F}_q$ such that the rank of $A-B$ is at least $d$ for all distinct $A,B\in \mathcal{C}$. Suppose that $m\leqslant n$. If $\#\mathcal{C}= q^{n(m-d+1)}$, then $\mathcal{C}$ is a maximum rank distance (MRD for short) code. Until 2016, there were only two known constructions of MRD codes for arbitrary $1<d<m-1$. One was found by Delsarte (1978) and Gabidulin (1985) independently, and it was later generalized by Kshevetskiy and Gabidulin (2005). We often call them (generalized) Gabidulin codes. Another family was recently obtained by S…
Generalized twisted Gabidulin codes are one of the few known families of maximum rank matrix codes over finite fields. As a subset of m by n matrices, when m=n, the automorphism group of any generalized twisted Gabidulin code has been completely determined recently. In this paper, we consider the same problem for m<n. Under certain conditions on their parameters, we determine their middle nuclei and right nuclei, which are important invariants with respect to the equivalence for rank metric codes. Furthermore, we also use them to derive necessary conditions on the automorphisms of generalized …
In this article we construct a new family of linear maximum rank distance (MRD) codes for all parameters. This family contains the only known family for general parameters, the Gabidulin codes, and contains codes inequivalent to the Gabidulin codes. This family also contains the well-known family of semifields known as Generalised Twisted Fields. We also calculate the automorphism group of these codes, including the automorphism group of the Gabidulin codes.
We consider $q$-matroids and their associated classical matroids derived from Gabidulin rank-metric codes. We express the generalized rank weights of a Gabidulin rank-metric code in terms of Betti numbers of the dual classical matroid associated to the $q$-matroid corresponding to the code. In our main result, we show how these Betti numbers and their elongations determine the generalized weight polynomials for $q$-matorids, in particular, for the Gabidulin rank-metric codes. In addition, we demonstrate how the weight distribution and higher weight spectra of such codes can be determined direc…
Let $k,n,m \in \mathbb{Z}^+$ integers such that $k\leq n \leq m$, let $\mathrm{G}_{n,k}\in \mathbb{F}_{q^m}^n$ be a Delsarte-Gabidulin code. Wachter-Zeh proven that codes belonging to this family cannot be efficiently list decoded for any radius $τ$, providing $τ$ is large enough. This achievement essentially relies on proving a lower bound for the list size of some specific words in $\mathbb{F}_{q^m}^n \setminus \mathrm{G}_{n,k}$. In 2016, Raviv and Wachter-Zeh improved this bound in a special case, i.e. when $n\mid m$. As a consequence, they were able to detect infinite families of Delsarte-…
After a seminal paper by Shekeey (2016), a connection between maximum $h$-scattered $\mathbb{F}_q$-subspaces of $V(r,q^n)$ and maximum rank distance (MRD) codes has been established in the extremal cases $h=1$ and $h=r-1$. In this paper, we propose a connection for any $h\in\{1,\ldots,r-1\}$, extending and unifying all the previously known ones. As a consequence, we obtain examples of non-square MRD codes which are not equivalent to generalized Gabidulin or twisted Gabidulin codes. Up to equivalence, we classify MRD codes having the same parameters as the ones in our connection. Also, we deter…
We investigate punctured maximum rank distance codes in cyclic models for bilinear forms of finite vector spaces. In each of these models we consider an infinite family of linear maximum rank distance codes obtained by puncturing generalized twisted Gabidulin codes. We calculate the automorphism group of such codes and we prove that this family contains many codes which are not equivalent to any generalized Gabidulin code. This solves a problem posed recently by Sheekey in [30].
In this note, we provide a description of the elements of minimum rank of a generalized Gabidulin code in terms of Grassmann coordinates. As a consequence, a characterization of linearized polynomials of rank at most $n-k$ is obtained, as well as parametric equations for MRD-codes of distance $d=n-k+1$.
Left and right idealizers are important invariants of linear rank-distance codes. In the case of maximum rank-distance (MRD for short) codes in $\mathbb{F}_q^{n\times n}$ the idealizers have been proved to be isomorphic to finite fields of size at most $q^n$. Up to now, the only known MRD codes with maximum left and right idealizers are generalized Gabidulin codes, which were first constructed in 1978 by Delsarte and later generalized by Kshevetskiy and Gabidulin in 2005. In this paper we classify MRD codes in $\mathbb{F}_q^{n\times n}$ for $n\leq 9$ with maximum left and right idealizers and …
Let $Ψ_{k,n}$ denote the number of inequivalent binary self-orthogonal $[n,k]$ codes. We present a method which allows us to compute $Ψ_{k,n}$ explicitly for a moderate $k$ and an arbitrary $n$. Included in this paper are explicit formulas for $Ψ_{k,n}$ with $k\le 5$.
Scattered polynomials of a given index over finite fields are intriguing rare objects with many connections within mathematics. Of particular interest are the exceptional ones, as defined in 2018 by the first author and Zhou, for which partial classification results are known. In this paper we propose a unified algebraic description of $\mathbb{F}_{q^n}$-linear maximum rank distance codes, introducing the notion of exceptional linear maximum rank distance codes of a given index. Such a connection naturally extends the notion of exceptionality for a scattered polynomial in the rank metric frame…
This paper investigates the generalized rank weights, with a definition implied by the study of the generalized rank weight enumerator. We study rank metric codes over $L$, where $L$ is a finite Galois extension of a field $K$. This is a generalization of the case where $K = \mathbb{F}_q$ and $L = \mathbb{F}_{q^m}$ of Gabidulin codes to arbitrary characteristic. We show equivalence to previous definitions, in particular the ones by Kurihara-Matsumoto-Uyematsu, Oggier-Sboui and Ducoat. As an application of the notion of generalized rank weights, we discuss codes that are degenerate with respect…
We provide an algebraic description for sum-rank metric codes, as quotient space of a skew polynomial ring. This approach generalizes at the same time the skew group algebra setting for rank-metric codes and the polynomial setting for codes in the Hamming metric. This allows to construct twisted linearized Reed-Solomon codes, a new family of maximum sum-rank distance codes extending at the same time Sheekey's twisted Gabidulin codes in the rank metric and twisted Reed-Solomon codes in the Hamming metric. Furthermore, we provide an analogue in the sum-rank metric of Trombetti-Zhou construction,…
In this note, we demonstrate that every binary doubly even self-dual code of length $40$ can be realized as the residue code of some extremal Type II $\mathbb{Z}_4$-code. As a consequence, it is shown that there are at least $94356$ inequivalent extremal Type II $\mathbb{Z}_4$-codes of length $40$.
Over fields of characteristic unequal to $2$, we can identify symmetric matrices with homogeneous polynomials of degree $2$. This allows us to view symmetric rank-metric codes as living inside the space of such polynomials. In this paper, we generalize the construction of symmetric Gabidulin codes to polynomials of degree $d>2$ over field of characteristic $0$ or $>d$. To do so, we equip the space of homogeneous polynomials of degree $d\geq 2$ with the metric induced by the essential rank, which is the minimal number of linear forms needed to express a polynomial. We provide bounds on the mini…
For any admissible value of the parameters $n$ and $k$ there exist $[n,k]$-Maximum Rank distance ${\mathbb F}_q$-linear codes. Indeed, it can be shown that if field extensions large enough are considered, almost all rank distance codes are MRD. On the other hand, very few families up to equivalence of such codes are currently known. In the present paper we study some invariants of MRD codes and evaluate their value for the known families, providing a new characterization of generalized twisted Gabidulin codes.
We compare the two duality theories of rank-metric codes proposed by Delsarte and Gabidulin, proving that the former generalizes the latter. We also give an elementary proof of MacWilliams identities for the general case of Delsarte rank-metric codes. The identities which we derive are very easy to handle, and allow us to re-establish in a very concise way the main results of the theory of rank-metric codes first proved by Delsarte employing the theory of association schemes and regular semilattices. We also show that our identities imply as a corollary the original MacWilliams identities esta…
Four constructions for Ferrers diagram rank-metric (FDRM) codes are presented. The first one makes use of a characterization on generator matrices of a class of systematic maximum rank distance codes. By introducing restricted Gabidulin codes, the second construction is presented, which unifies many known constructions for FDRM codes. The third and fourth constructions are based on two different ways to represent elements of a finite field $\mathbb F_{q^m}$ (vector representation and matrix representation). Each of these constructions produces optimal codes with different diagrams and paramete…
For lengths $64$ and $66$, we construct extremal singly even self-dual codes with weight enumerators for which no extremal singly even self-dual codes were previously known to exist. We also construct new $40$ inequivalent extremal doubly even self-dual $[64,32,12]$ codes with covering radius $12$ meeting the Delsarte bound.
In this article we construct a new family of semifields, containing and extending two well-known families, namely Albert's generalised twisted fields and Petit's cyclic semifields (also known as Johnson-Jha semifields). The construction also gives examples of semifields with parameters for which no examples were previously known. In the case of semifields two dimensions over a nucleus and four-dimensional over their centre, the construction gives all possible examples. Furthermore we embed these semifields in a new family of maximum rank-distance codes, encompassing most known current construc…
In this paper we provide a large family of rank-metric codes, which contains properly the codes recently found by Longobardi and Zanella (2021) and by Longobardi, Marino, Trombetti and Zhou (2021). These codes are $\mathbb{F}_{q^{2t}}$-linear of dimension $2$ in the space of linearized polynomials over $\mathbb{F}_{q^{2t}}$, where $t$ is any integer greater than $2$, and we prove that they are maximum rank distance codes. For $t\ge 5$, we determine their equivalence classes and these codes turn out to be inequivalent to any other construction known so far, and hence they are really new.
The minimum distance graph of a code has the codewords as vertices and edges exactly when the Hamming distance between two codewords equals the minimum distance of the code. A constructive proof for reconstructibility of an extended perfect binary one-error-correcting code from its minimum distance graph is presented. Consequently, inequivalent such codes have nonisomorphic minimum distance graphs. Moreover, it is shown that the automorphism group of a minimum distance graph is isomorphic to that of the corresponding code.
This preprint is of a chapter to appear in {\it Combinatorics and finite fields: Difference sets, polynomials, pseudorandomness and applications. Radon Series on Computational and Applied Mathematics}, K.-U. Schmidt and A. Winterhof (eds.). Rank-metric codes are codes consisting of matrices with entries in a finite field, with the distance between two matrices being the rank of their difference. Codes with maximum size for a fixed minimum distance are called Maximum Rank Distance (MRD) codes. Such codes were constructed and studied independently by Delsarte (1978), Gabidulin (1985), Roth (1991…
Constant dimension codes (CDCs), as special subspace codes, have received a lot of attention due to their application in random network coding. This paper introduces a family of new codes, called rank metric codes with given ranks (GRMCs), to generalize the parallel construction in [Xu and Chen, IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory, 64 (2018), 6315--6319] and the classic multilevel construction. A Singleton-like upper bound and a lower bound for GRMCs derived from Gabidulin codes are given. Via GRMCs, two effective constructions for CDCs are presented by combining the parallel construction and the multilev…
In this paper, we present a new family of maximum rank distance (MRD for short) codes in $\mathbb F_{q}^{2n\times 2n}$ of minimum distance $2\leq d\leq 2n$. In particular, when $d=2n$, we can show that the corresponding semifield is exactly a Hughes-Kleinfeld semifield. The middle and right nuclei of these MRD codes are both equal to $\mathbb F_{q^n}$. We also prove that the MRD codes of minimum distance $2<d<2n$ in this family are inequivalent to all known ones. The equivalence between any two members of this new family is also determined.
Optimal rank-metric codes in Ferrers diagrams can be used to construct good subspace codes. Such codes consist of matrices having zeros at certain fixed positions. This paper generalizes the known constructions for Ferrers diagram rank-metric (FDRM) codes. Via a criteria for linear maximum rank distance (MRD) codes, an explicit construction for a class of systematic MRD codes is presented, which is used to produce new optimal FDRM codes. By exploring subcodes of Gabidulin codes, if each of the rightmost $δ-1$ columns in Ferrers diagram $\cal F$ has at least $n-r$ dots, where $r$ is taken in a …
In [A. Neri, P. Santonastaso, F. Zullo. Extending two families of maximum rank distance codes], the authors extended the family of $2$-dimensional $\mathbb{F}_{q^{2t}}$-linear MRD codes recently found in [G. Longobardi, G. Marino, R. Trombetti, Y. Zhou. A large family of maximum scattered linear sets of $\mathrm{PG}(1,q^n)$ and their associated MRD codes]. Also, for $t \geq 5$ they determined equivalence classes of the elements in this new family and provided the exact number of inequivalent codes in it. In this article, we complete the study of the equivalence issue removing the restriction $…
Let $d, n \in \mathbb{Z}^+$ such that $1\leq d \leq n$. A $d$-code $\mathcal{C} \subset \mathbb{F}_q^{n \times n}$ is a subset of order $n$ square matrices with the property that for all pairs of distinct elements in $\mathcal{C}$, the rank of their difference is greater than or equal to $d$. A $d$-code with as many as possible elements is called a maximum $d$-code. The integer $d$ is also called the minimum distance of the code. When $d<n$, a classical example of such an object is the so-called generalized Gabidulin code. There exist several classes of maximum $d$-codes made up respectively o…
We introduce the class of rank-metric geometric lattices and initiate the study of their structural properties. Rank-metric lattices can be seen as the $q$-analogues of higher-weight Dowling lattices, defined by Dowling himself in 1971. We fully characterize the supersolvable rank-metric lattices and compute their characteristic polynomials. We then concentrate on the smallest rank-metric lattice whose characteristic polynomial we cannot compute, and provide a formula for it under a polynomiality assumption on its Whitney numbers of the first kind. The proof relies on computational results and…
A $q$-analogue of the rational normal curve and linearized Reed-Solomon codes
Inria（法国国家信息与自动化研究所）；LIX, École polytechnique, Institut Polytechnique de Paris（巴黎理工学院高等学院计算机科学实验室）；Université Paris 8, Laboratoire de Géométrie, Analyse et Applications, LAGA, Université Sorbonne Paris Nord, CNRS, UMR 7539（巴黎第八大学，索邦巴黎北大学，法国国家科学研究中心几何、分析与应用实验室）；MPI Leipzig（莱比锡马克斯·普朗克数学研究所）
The concept of linear set in projective spaces over finite fields was introduced by Lunardon in 1999 and it plays central roles in the study of blocking sets, semifields, rank-distance codes and etc. A linear set with the largest possible cardinality and rank is called maximum scattered. Despite two decades of study, there are only a limited number of maximum scattered linear sets of a line $\mathrm{PG}(1,q^n)$. In this paper, we provide a large family of new maximum scattered linear sets over $\mathrm{PG}(1,q^n)$ for any even $n\geq 6$ and odd $q$. In particular, the relevant family contains …
Maximum scattered subspaces are not only objects of intrinsic interest in finite geometry but also powerful tools for the construction of MRD-codes, projective two-weight codes, and strongly regular graphs. In 2018 Csajbók, Marino, Polverino, and Zanella introduced a new family of maximum scattered subspaces in $\mathbb{F}_{q^6} \times \mathbb{F}_{q^6}$ arising from polynomials of type $f_b(x)=bx^q+x^{q^4}$ for certain choices of $b \in \mathbb{F}_{q^6}$. Throughout characterizations for $f_{b_2}(x)$ and $f_{b_1}(x)$ giving rise to equivalent maximum scattered subspaces, the authors conjecture…
