Critical problem for codes over finite chain rings (Q2238910)

The authors investigate the critical problem, which was introduced in matroid theory and is the problem of finding the maximum dimension of a subspace that contains no element of a fixed subset. The original problem was stated by \textit{H. H. Crapo} and \textit{G. C. Rota} [On the foundations of combinatorial theory: Combinatorial geometries. Preliminary edition. Cambridge, MA-London: The M.I.T. Press (1970; Zbl 0216.02101)]. The authors of this paper take over the critical problem to linear codes over finite fields, which means the problem of finding the critical exponent of a linear code. First, the authors introduce the critical exponent \(c(M,q)\) and give some preliminaries such like dual code, support, weight, covering number, generator matrix (in standard form) and modular independence. In Section 3 of the paper, the authors introduce the critical exponent for linear codes and they give some equivalent conditions (Theorem 3.1). Theorem 3.8 says that the critical exponent \(c(C,R)\) equals the covering number of an \(R\)-code. Among the given results, there is an extension of Kung's upper bound in Theorem 4.1. In the end of the paper, the authors give some examples.