On the minimum length of some linear codes (Q2384020)

The authors compute \(n_q(k,d)\), the minimum length that a \(q\)-ary linear code of dimension \(k\) and minimum distance \(d\) can have. It is well-known that \(n_q(k,d)\) is lower bounded by the so-called Griesmer bound \(g_q(k,d)\), this estimate being sharp in several cases such as e.g. whenever \(k\) odd and \(q^{k-1}-2q^{(k-1)/2}+1\leq d\leq q^{k-1}\). Among other things, the main result in this paper implies \(n_q(k,d)=g_k(q,d)+1\) for for \(k\geq 5\) odd, \(q\geq 3\) and \(q^{k-1}-2q^{(k-1)/2}-q+1\leq d\leq q^{k-1}-2q^{(k-1)/2}\). The value \(n_2(k,d)\) is not known at present.