Linear codes with covering radius 3 (Q2267791)

A linear code in \(\mathbb{F}_q^n\) with codimension \(r\), minimum distance \(d\), and covering radius \(R\) is said to be an \textit{\([n,n-r,d]_qR\)-code}. In particular, the fact that the covering radius of the linear code is equal to \(R\) means that all vectors of \(\mathbb{F}_q^r\) can be obtained as a linear combination of at most \(R\) columns of a parity check matrix of this \([n,n-r,d]_qR\)-code. The minimum length \(n\) for which an \([n,n-r,d]_qR\)-code exists, is called the \textit{length function} and is denoted by \(\ell_q(r,R)\). Let PG\((v,q)\) denote the \(v\)-dimensional projective space over the finite field \(\mathbb{F}_q\) of order \(q\). A set of points \(S\subset\) PG\((v,q)\) is said to be \textit{\(\rho\)-saturating} if for any point \(x\) of PG\((v,q)\), there exist \(\rho+1\) points in \(S\) generating a subspace of PG\((v,q)\) containing \(x\), and \(\rho\) is the smallest integer for which this property holds. The authors derive in this article new upper bounds on the parameters \(\ell_q(r,3)\) for \(q\geq 3\), i.e., they derive new upper bounds on the smallest size of 2-saturating sets in PG\((r-1,q)\). To obtain these new upper bounds, they describe a general construction, denoted by \textit{Construction A}. They then give six particular instances of this general Construction A, denoted by \textit{Constructions A1 to A6}, leading to new infinite families of codes having covering radius 3. Additionally, a table giving upper bounds on \(\ell_q(4,3)\) for \(q\leq 563\), a table giving upper bounds on \(\ell_q(5,3)\) for \(q\leq 43\), and two tables with upper bounds on \(\ell_q(r,3)\) for \(q=3,4,5,7\), and \(r\leq 24\) are given.