The dimensions of \(LU(3,q)\) codes (Q1024994)

The paper finds the dimension of \(LU(3,q)\) codes in the binary case, \(q=2^t\). For an arbitrary finite field \(F_q\)\, we have two codes with length \(q^3\),\, called \(LU(3,q)\) codes, determined by the parity check matrices \(H(3,q)\)\, and its transpose, where \(H(3,q)\)\, is the parity incidence matrix with rows and columns indexed by two sets (of \textit{points} and \textit{lines}) \(P^*\),\,\(L^*\)\, in bijection with \(F_q^3\), and \((a,b,c)\in P^*\)\, incident with \([x,y,z]\in L^*\)\, if and only if \(y=ax+b,\,\, z=ay+c\),\, see Kim, Peled, Pereplitsa, Pless and Friedland, [IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory 50, 2378--2388 (2004)]. Alternatively parity check matrices for these two codes are given by an incidence matrix \(M(P_1,L_1)\)\, and its transpose, where \(M(P_1,L_1)\)\, is deduced from the symplectic generalized quadrangle of points and lines \(W(q)=(P,L)\),\, with \(P=P(V)\)\, projective space of a \(4\)-dimensional \(F_q\)-vector space \(V\)\, endowed with a nonsingular alternating bilinear form and \(L\)\, the set of all totally isotropic lines in \(P\), see Sin and Xiang [IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory 52 (8), 3735--3737 (2006)]. Obviously the dimensions of the \(LU(3,q)\)\, codes are then \(q^3-rank(M(P_1,L_1))\). Sin and Xiang proved that the 2-rank of \(M(P_1,L_1)\)\, is \((q^3+2q^2-3q+2)/2\)\, for q odd and they conjectured the value for the binary case. In the present paper the author proves (theorem 1) that for \(q=2^t\)\, the 2-rank of \(M(P_1,L_1)\)\, is given by \[ 1+ \left( \frac{1+\sqrt{17}}{2}\right)^{2t} +\left( \frac{1-\sqrt{17}}{2}\right)^{2t}-2^{t+1} \] The proof of theorem 1, stated in Section 1, is deduced from the technical results of Sections 2 and 3 about finite symplectic spaces.