On the Grassmann graph of linear codes (Q1979960)

Let \(V\) be an \(n\)-dimensional vector space over \(\mathbb{F}\) and let \(k \in \{1,\ldots,n-1\}\). The \(k\)-Grassmann graph \(\Gamma(n,k)\) of \(V\) is the graph whose vertices are the \(k\)-subspaces of \(V\) and where two vertices \(X\) and \(Y\) are adjacent if and only if \(\dim(X\cap Y)=k-1\). Linear codes are a subspace of \(\mathbb{F}^n\) endowed with the Hamming distance. If a code \(C\) has dimension \(k\), we say that it is an \([n,k]\)-code. We can also define the notion of the dual code via the inner standard product, so that we will say that a code \(C\) has dual minimum distance \(t+1\) if the minimum distance of the dual code of \(C\) is \(t+1\). Let \(t\) be a positive integer and let \(\mathcal{C}_t(n,k)\) be the set of \([n,k]\)-linear codes with dual minimum distance at least \(t+1\). Denote by \(\Delta_t(n,k)\) the subgraph of \(\Gamma(n,k)\) induced by the elements of \(\mathcal{C}_t(n,k)\). We will call \(\Delta_t(n,k)\) the Grassmann graph of \(\mathcal{C}_t(n,k)\). \textit{M. Kwiatkowski} and \textit{M. Pankov} [Finite Fields Appl. 39, 251--263 (2016; Zbl 1338.51010)] proved that \(\Delta_1(n,k)\) is connected and isometrically embedded in \(\Gamma(n,k)\) if and only if \(n<(q+1)^2+k-2\), whereas \textit{M. Kwiatkowski} et al. [Finite Fields Appl. 54, 15--29 (2018; Zbl 1401.51009)] showed that a sufficient condition for the graph \(\Delta_2(n,k)\) with \(\mathbb{F}=\mathbb{F}_q\) to be isometrically embedded in \(\Gamma(n,k)\) is \(q \geq\binom{n}{2}\). In this paper, the authors extend the above results proving that, if \(t,k,n\) are integers such that \(1\leq t \leq k \leq n\) and \(\mathbb{F}\) has size greater than or equal to \(\binom{n}{t}\), then the graph \(\Delta_t(n,k)\) is connected and isometrically embedded in \(\Gamma(n,k)\), and the diameters of \(\Delta_t(n,k)\) and \(\Gamma(n,k)\) coincide.