A new family of MRD-codes (Q1748084)

Let \(\Lambda =\mathrm{PG}(V, \mathbb{F}_{q^n}) = \mathrm{PG}(r - 1, q^n)\), where \(V\) is a vector space of dimension \(r\) over \(\mathbb{F}_{q^n}\). A point set \(L\) of \(\Lambda\) is said to be an \(\mathbb{F}_q\)-linear set of \(\Lambda\) of rank \(k\) if it is defined by the non-zero vectors of a \(k\)-dimensional \(\mathbb{F}_q\)-vector subspace \(U\) of \(V\), i.e. \[ L = L_U = \{u \in \mathbb{F}_{q^n} \;: \;u \in U \setminus\{0\}\}. \] The set of \(m \times n\) matrices \(\mathbb{F}_q^{m\times n}\) over \(\mathbb{F}_q\) is a rank metric \(\mathbb{F}_q\)-space with rank metric distance defined by \(d(A, B) = \operatorname{rk}(A -B)\) for \(A, B \in \mathbb{F}_q^{m\times n}\). A subset \(\mathcal{C} \subset \mathbb{F}_q^{m\times n}\) is called a rank distance code with minimum distance \(d(C) = \min_{A,B\in \mathcal{C}, A\neq B} \{d(A,B)\}\). In [Adv. Math. Commun. 10, No. 3, 475--488 (2016; Zbl 1348.94087)], \textit{J. Sheekey} showed that scattered linear sets of \(\mathrm{PG}(1, q^m)\) of rank \(m\) yield \(\mathbb{F}_q\)-linear MRD-codes of dimension \(2m\) and minimum distance \(m -1\), that is, codes \(\mathcal{C}\) such that \(\#\mathcal{C} = q^{\max\{m,n\}(\min\{m,n\}-m+2)}\). In this paper, the authors show that every code with these parameters can be obtained from a suitable scattered linear set of rank \(m\) of \(\mathrm{PG}(1, q^m)\). Also, they present a family of \(\mathbb{F}_q\)-linear sets of rank \(m\) of \(\mathrm{PG}(1, q^m)\), \(m = 2n\) and \(n > 1\), arising from specific \(\mathbb{F}_q\)-linear sets of \(\mathrm{PG}(3, q^n)\). These linear sets are defined by the following \(\mathbb{F}_q\)-vector subspaces of \(\mathbb{F}_{q^m}\times \mathbb{F}_{q^m}\) \[ U_{b,s} := \{(x, bx^{q^s} + x^{q^s+n}) \;: \;x \in \mathbb{F}_{q^{2n}} \}, \] with \(N_{q^{2n}/q^{n}}(b)= 1\), \(1 \leq s \leq 2n - 1\) and \(\gcd(s, n) = 1\). In particular, when the corresponding linear set is scattered and \(m > 4\), the corresponding MRD-code is not equivalent to any previously known MRD-code with the same parameters. Finally, they exhibit for \(m = 6\) and \(m = 8\) infinite examples of scattered \(\mathbb{F}_q\)-subspaces of type \(U_{b,s}\) and hence new infinite families of MRD-codes.