A note on the weight spectrum of the Schubert code \(C_{\alpha }(2, m)\) (Q1801097)

For the Schubert codes \(C_{\alpha}(2,m)\) defined by the \({\mathbb F}_q\)-rational points of the Schubert variety \(\Omega_{\alpha}(\ell,m)\) of the Grassmannian \(G(\ell,m)\), \textit{L. Guerra} and \textit{R. Vincenti} [Des. Codes Cryptography 33, No. 2, 173--180 (2004; Zbl 1066.94021)] obtained the full distribution of weights, in particular determining the mininum distance. The paper under review uses a different approach to that of Guerra-Vincenti for the determination of the possible weights of the codewords of the linear codes \(C_{\alpha}(2,m)\). One of the main results is a bijection between codewords of \(C_{\alpha}(2,m)\) and certain \(m\times m\) skew-symmetric (block) matrices. Using the linear spaces given by the kernels of the two non-zero blocks of each of these skew-symmetric matrices they obtain formulas for the weights of the corresponding codewords in Theorem 3.7 and from these formulas they deduce the largest power of \(q\) that divides the weight of every codeword in \(C_{\alpha}(2,m)\) in Theorem 3.8. Lastly, in Theorem 3.15 they obtain the weight spectrum of the Schubert code \(C_{\alpha}(2,m)\).