Galois invariance, trace codes and subfield subcodes (Q964416): Difference between revisions

This is a short and interesting article where it is clarified the relation between the subfield-subcode and the trace code of a given one. Let \(E\supset K\) be a Galois field extension with Galois group \(\Gamma=\mathrm{Gal}(E/K)\). Given \(C\), a linear code of length \(n\) over \(E\), two operations are considered: \(\bullet\) The subfield-subcode of \(C\), \(\mathrm{Res}(C)=\{c\in C\mid c\in K^n\}\). \(\bullet\) The trace code of \(C\), \(Tr(C)=\{Tr(c)\mid c\in C\}\), where \(Tr:E\rightarrow K\) is the trace map. Both \(\mathrm{Res}(C)\) and \(Tr(C)\) are linear codes over \(K\). Delsarte provided the following relation: \[ \mathrm{Res}(C)^{\perp}=Tr(C^{\perp}). \] The authors are interested in giving a further relation between them. They consider the extension code \(\mathrm{Ext}(D)=E \otimes_{K} D\), i.e., for each linear code \(D\) over \(K\), we consider it over \(E\). Restriction and extension are in certain sense inverse operations. If \(D\) is a code over \(K\) then \(D=\mathrm{Res}(\mathrm{Ext}(D))\) but if \(C\) is a code over \(E\), in general, we have that \(C\neq \mathrm{Ext}(\mathrm{Res}(C))\). They prove that the the previous statement if and only if \(C\) is \(\Gamma\)-invariant. A linear code is \(\Gamma\)-invariant if \(C^{\gamma}=C\) for every \(\gamma\in \Gamma\). They also prove that if \(E/K\) is a separable field extension (for finite field extensions this is always the case) and \(C\) is a linear code over \(E\) then \(\mathrm{Res}(C)\) is a subcode of \(Tr(C)\). Finally they prove that \(\mathrm{Res}(C)=Tr(C)\) if and only if \(C\) is invariant under \(\Gamma\).