On the key equation over a commutative ring (Q1580538)

Alternant codes over a commutative ring \(R\) with identity are defined and a corresponding key equation given. In particular the case when the ring is a domain is considered, and it is shown that the error locator polynomial is the unique monic minimal polynomial of the finite sequence of syndromes. Let \(R\) be a commutative ring with identity; and let \(N(R)\) denote the subset of \(R\) consisting of all elements which are not zero-divisors. \(N(R)\) is a multiplicative subset of \(R\) containing the units. A set \(S \subseteq N(R)\) is called subtractive if for all distinct \(a,b \in S\), \(a-b \in N(R)\). A local ring \(R\) is called a Hensel ring if it admits a Hensel lifting, i.e. \[ \text{if }F \in R[X]\text{ is monic, } \overline{F} = g \cdot h\text{ and } g,h \in K[X] \text{ satisfy } (g,h)=1, \] then there are monic \(G,~H \in R[X]\) such that \(F=G \cdot H\) and \(\overline{G} = g\), \(\overline{H}=h\) where \(K = R/M\), \(M\) being the maximal ideal of \(R\) and \(K\) the residue ring. Some properties of such rings are established and sequences and Laurent series are discussed. Section 3 defines and establishes the properties of several types of such codes (alternant codes over rings, BCH codes over a Galois ring, BCH codes over \(p\)-adic integers, generalized Reed-Solomon codes over finite rings). The key equation for the alternant codes is established. The following section characterizes the monic minimal polynomials of the finite and infinite sequences which can be written as finite sums of geometric sequences, and in particular the syndrome sequence of an alternant code. Section 5 considers decoding algorithms for these codes for domains and local rings.