Note on MDS codes over the integers modulo \(p^m\) (Q1977500)

The authors study linear codes \(C\) over \(\mathbb{Z}_pm\) that satisfy with equality the Singleton-like bound \(d(C)\leq n-\text{rank}(C)+1\) where \(d (C)\) is the minimum Hamming distance of \(C\), \(n\) equals the length of \(C\), and \(\text{rank}(C)\) equals the number of rows of a generator matrix for \(C\) of the form \[ G=\left[\begin{matrix} G_0\\ p\cdot G_1\\ \vdots\\ p^{m-1}G_{m-1} \end{matrix} \right]. \] It is proved that \(C^\perp\) is MDS if \(C\) is MDS. Information on the weight enumerator of MDS codes over \(\mathbb{Z}_{p^m}\) is obtained, as well as a matrix characterization of such codes.