On \((1 - u)\)-cyclic codes over \(\mathbb F_{p^k}+u\mathbb F_{p^k}\) (Q1003563)

The authors extend previous results of \textit{J. Qian}, \textit{L. Zhang} and \textit{S. Zhu} [Appl. Math. Lett. 19, No. 8, 820--823 (2006; Zbl 1122.94055)], concerning cyclic and constacyclic codes over the ring \(\mathbb{F}_2 +u\mathbb{F}_2,\,\, u^2=0\), to the most general ring \(R= \mathbb{F}_q +u\mathbb{F}_q\), \(q=p^k\), \(p\) prime (\(R\) is a finite chain ring with maximal ideal \(uR\) and residue field \(\mathbb{F}_q\)). Section 2 studies the Gray images of \((1-u)\)-cyclic codes over \(R\), the Gray map \(\phi\) is a linear isometry from \((R^n, d_{hom})\) to \((\mathbb{F}_q^{qn},d_{Ham})\), see [\textit{M. Greferath} and \textit{S. E. Schmidt}, IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory 45, No. 7, 2522--2524 (1999; Zbl 0960.94035)]. Theorem 2.2 proves that a code \({\mathcal C}\) of length \(n\) over \(R\) is \((1-u)\)-cyclic if and only if its Gray image \(\phi({\mathcal C})\) is a quasi-cyclic code of index \(p^{k-1}\) and length \(qn\) over the field \(\mathbb{F}_q\). Section 3 carries out a similar study for the Gray images of cyclic codes over \(R\), showing (Corollary 3.3) that the Gray image of a cyclic code of length \(n,\,\, (n,p)=1\), is permutation-equivalent to a quasi-cyclic code of index \(p^{k-1}\) and length \(qn\) over \(\mathbb{F}_q\). Finally the paper illustrates the theoretical results with an explicit example of two \((1-u)\)-cyclic codes over the ring \(R= \mathbb{F}_4 +u\mathbb{F}_4\), whose Gray images give quaternary optimal codes.