Secant spaces and Clifford's theorem over finite fields (Q1267010)

The author applies coding theory bounds to obtain results concerning divisors on curves over a finite field. Let \(X\) denote a nonsingular, absolutely irreducible curve over the field \({\mathbb{F}}_q\) with at least \(n\) \({\mathbb{F}}_q\)-rational points. Let \(g^r_d\) be a linear system of degree \(d\) and projective dimension \(r\) on \(X\). Let \(f_r(n,k)\) denote an upper bound for the \(r\)th generalized Hamming weight, \(d_r\), of a \(q\)-ary linear code of length \(n\) and dimension \(k\). By considering the projective system given by the \({\mathbb{F}}_q\)-rational points of the image of \(X\) under the map associated to the linear system \(g^r_d\), the author shows that there exists a divisor \(D\) defined over \({\mathbb{F}}_q\) of degree \(e\) such that \(\dim (g^r_d(-D))\geq r-t-1\) if \(e\leq n-f_{r-t-1}(n,r+1)\). A somewhat analogous result over the complex numbers, proved using Brill-Noether theory, is due to \textit{M. Coppens} and \textit{G. Martens} [Compos. Math. 78, No. 2, 193-212 (1991; Zbl 0741.14035)]. The final theorem in the paper is related to Clifford's theorem. Let \(D\) be an \({\mathbb{F}}_q\)-rational divisor of degree \(a\) on \(X\), and let \(k(n,d)\) be an upper bound for the dimension of a \(q\)-ary linear code of length \(n\) and minimum distance \(d\). By considering the projective system given by the \({\mathbb{F}}_q\)-rational points of the image of \(X\) under the complete linear system \(| D|\), the author shows that \(l(D)\leq k(n,n-a)\). This result often gives an improvement of Clifford's theorem for curves with many rational points, especially for curves in an asymptotically good family.