A bound for certain \(s\)-extremal lattices and codes (Q2642848)

The theory of modular forms allows to bound the minimum \(\mu \) of an even unimodular lattice of dimension \(n\) by \(\mu \leq 2 \lfloor n/24 \rfloor + 2 \). In [J. Number Theory 73, No.~2, 359--389 (1998; Zbl 0917.11026)] \textit{E. M. Rains} and \textit{N. J. A. Sloane} achieved the same bound also for odd unimodular lattices \(L\), using the so called shadow \(S(L) = L_0^* \setminus L\), where \(L_0 \) denotes the even sublattice of \(L\). With the exception of \(L=O_{23}\), the shorter Leech lattice of dimension 23, all unimodular lattices \(L\) satisfy \[ 2 \min (L) + \min (S(L)) \leq n/4 + 2 . \] A unimodular lattice \(L\) is called s-extremal, if equality holds. The standard lattice \({\mathbb Z} ^n\) is the unique s-extremal lattice of minimum 1 and there are only finitely many s-extremal lattices of minimum 2 (see [\textit{N. Elkies}, Math. Res. Lett. 2, No.~5, 643--651 (1995; Zbl 0854.11021)]) for a classification). If the minimum \(\mu \) of an s-extremal lattice is even, then its dimension \(n\) satisfies \(n<12 \mu \). In particular such lattices are extremal. Similar results hold for binary self-dual codes.