Identifiers for MRD-codes (Q2419060)

Rank-distance (RD) codes have been introduced by \textit{P. Delsarte} in 1978 [J. Comb. Theory, Ser. A 25, 226--241 (1978; Zbl 0397.94012)] as \(q\)-analogs of usual linear error correcting codes over finite fields. In the same paper, he also showed that for any admissible value of the parameters \(n\) and \(k\) there exists an \([n, k]\)-maximum rank distance (MRD), i.e. an RD code attaining a certain singleton-like bound. Recently, MRD-codes have been widely investigated both for their applications to network coding and for their links with remarkable geometric and algebraic objects such as linear sets and semifields. Even if there are just a relative small number of known constructions of MRD codes, it has been shown that a generic rank-distance code, provided that the field involved with the construction is large enough, is MRD. One of the main issue concerning MRD codes is equivalence. In a more general way, for cryptographically reasons (McEliece cryptosystems), it is important for a given family of codes \(\mathcal{F}\) to possess a polynomial algorithm (called a distinguisher) which determines if an arbitrary matrix \(G\) generates a code belonging to \(\mathcal{F}\) or not. In this paper, the authors investigate the existence of algebraic distinguishers for the currently known families of \(\mathbb{F}_{q^n}\)-linear MRD codes and provide some invariants up to equivalence. More in detail, they list the possible dimensions of the intersections of an \(\mathbb{F}_{q^n}\)-linear MRD-code with its conjugates and describe maximum dimension Gabidulin codes contained in a fixed MRD-code; see Theorem 3.6. Also, the equivalence issue with respect to the so called generalized twisted Gabidulin codes is considered in Theorem 3.9.