Perfect codes for metrics generated by primitive 2-error-correcting binary BCH codes (Q1582952)

This paper considers a metric on \(F_2^{2m}\) which is induced by the quasi-perfect \([2^m-1,2^m-2m-1,5]\) binary BCH codes. Constructions of codes are given which are perfect with respect to this metric. Easy decoding methods for these codes are proposed. Let \(\mathcal V\) be an \(r\)-dimensional vector space over the finite field \(F_q\) of \(q\) elements. The span \(\langle X \rangle\) of a subset \(X \subseteq {\mathcal V}\) is the smallest linear subspace of \(\mathcal V\) that contains \(X\). Let \({\mathcal F} := \{{\mathbf f}_1,{\mathbf f}_2,\ldots,{\mathbf f}_n\}\) be any set of pairwise independent vectors in \(\mathcal V\) that span \(\mathcal V\). The \(\mathcal F\)-norm \(N_{\mathcal F}({\mathbf x})\) of a vector \({\mathbf x} \in {\mathcal V}\) is defined as the size of the smallest subset \(I \subset \{1,2,\ldots,n\}\) such that \({\mathbf x}\) belongs to \(\langle \{ {\mathbf f}_i\mid i \in I\} \rangle\). The \(\mathcal F\)-distance \(d_{\mathcal F}({\mathbf x},{\mathbf y})\) betyween two vectors \({\mathbf x},{\mathbf y} \in {\mathcal V}\) is the norm of their difference \(d_{\mathcal F}({\mathbf x},{\mathbf y}) := N_{\mathcal F}({\mathbf x}-{\mathbf y})\). A Hamming type upper bound for the minimum \(\mathcal F\)-distance of a code \(C \subseteq {\mathcal V}\) is derived. An \(\mathcal F\)-perfect code is a code in \(\mathcal V\) that meets this bound with equality. This paper examines the \(\mathcal F\)-perfect codes when the parent code of the norm \(N_{\mathcal F}\) is a primitive two-error-correcting binary BCH code. A full description of the perfect codes is given for \(m=3, 4\) and 5.