On the classification of extremal even formally self-dual codes (Q1591639)

A code \(C\) is called formally self-dual if the weight distribution of \(C\) equals the weight distribution of \(C^\perp\). If \(C\) is a binary double-even formally self-dual code, then \(C\) is self-dual. A binary formally self-dual \([n,n/2,d]\) is called extremal if \(d=2\lfloor n/8\rfloor+2\). The main result is to show that there are exactly ten inequivalent [14,7,4] even formally self-dual codes, only one of which is self-dual. These results are extensions of results due to Bachoc, who classified even formally self-dual [12,6,4] codes. The authors find the intersection numbers for extremal formally self-dual codes of length 14 in two ways. One method uses harmonic polynomials for binary codes introduced recently by Bachoc. A new theorem is proved that gives a generator matrix for formally self-dual codes. The second method finds the intersection numbers from the generator matrix.