New extremal binary self-dual codes from block circulant matrices and block quadratic residue circulant matrices (Q1981718)

Two self-dual binary codes of dimension \(k\) are said to be neighbours if their intersection has dimension \(k-1\). For a self-dual code \(C\) and \(x\in \mathbb{F}_2^n\setminus C\) the code generated by \(\langle x\rangle^\bot \cap C\) and \(x\) is a neighbour of \(C\). Let \(R\) be a finite commutative Frobenius ring of characteristic 2, \(p\) a prime. \(Q_r(a,b,c)\) be the \(p\times p\) circulant matrix with three free variables, obtained through the quadratic residues and non-residues modulo \(p\). The first row \(r=(r_0,r_1,\ldots, r_{p-1})\) of \(Q p(a, b, c)\) is determined by the following rule: \[ r_i=\left\{ \begin{array}{ll} b, & \hbox{if }i \hbox{ is a quadratic residue }\bmod p; \\ c, & \hbox{if }i \hbox{ is a quadratic non-residue }\bmod p \end{array} \right., \text{ otherwise }r_i=1 \text{ if }i = 0. \] The authors calculate \(Q_p(a_i,b_i,c_i)Q_p(a_j,b_j,c_j)^T\) for both cases \(p=4k+1\) and \(p=4k+3.\) Let \(Q_l = Q_p(a_l, b_l, c_l),\) and \(A_i\) be \(p\times p\) circulant matrix over \(R\). The matrix \(M=\left(\text{circ}(Q_0,Q_1,Q_2)|\text{circ}(A_0,A_1,A_2)\right)\) generates a linear code of length \(6p\) over \(R\) for which necessary and sufficient condition to be self-orthogonal is proved. Using this construction a number of new self-dual codes of length 66 and 68 via certain extensions, neighbours and sequences of neighbours are discovered. Firstly, the authors construct self-dual codes of various lengths using the block circulant/block quadratic residue method. Then an extremal self-dual code (type I) of length 64 via an \(\mathbb{F}_2+u\mathbb{F}_2\) extension is tested for optimality. Next, new self-dual codes of length 66 by an \(\mathbb{F}_2\) extension of the previously constructed self-dual code of length 64 are generated. Finally, new self-dual codes of length 68 via an \(\mathbb{F}_2+u\mathbb{F}_2\) extension of the previously constructed self-dual codes of length 64 and sequences of neighbours of this codes are shown.