On nested code pairs from the Hermitian curve (Q1994959)

This article considers linear codes defined by the Hermitian curve, namely improved Hermitian codes, to produce pairs of nested linear codes that are used to construct secret sharing schemes and asymmetric quantum codes. Their security (full privacy and full reconstruction) and performance depend on the following parameters of a pair of nested codes \(C_1 \supset C_2\): the codimension, the relative minimum distance of \(C_1\) and \(C_2\) and the relative minimum distance of \(C_2^\bot\) and \(C_1^\bot\). The study is divided in two cases, not so small codimension and small codimension. The article under review produces secret sharing schemes and asymmetric quantum codes with better performance than the ones in the literature for the corresponding parameters. Moreover, the parameters of secret sharing schemes are compared with the threshold gap and the parameters of asymmetric quantum codes are compared with the Gilbert-Varshamov bound. The asymmetric quantum codes produced in this article are impure. Impure codes are beneficial for decoding porpoises. The article is very well-written and includes a nice introduction to secret sharing schemes, asymmetric quantum codes, the order bounds and improved Hermitian codes. Thus, it is largely self-contained and pleasant to read.