Near-MDS codes arising from algebraic curves (Q2569922)

This paper deals with near-MDS codes of dimension \(4\). These are linear codes geometrically represented by an \(n\)-set of a \(3\)-dimensional projective space \(\text{PG}(3,q)\) containing four coplanar points, but such that no three points are collinear and no five points are coplanar. A natural example of such an \(n\)-set is given by the set of all \(\mathbb F_q\)-rational points of an elliptic quartic \(\Gamma_4\) (the complete intersection of two non-singular quadrics of \(\text{PG}(3,q)\)). The automorphism group of the associated near-MDS code is isomorphic to the group \(G\) of all automorphisms of the space preserving \(\Gamma_4\), and it is shown that this group \(G\) has a rather simple structure (if the characteristic \(p\) is greater than 3): it admits an elementary abelian subgroup \(N\) of order \(8\) such that \(G/N\) is isomorphic to \(C_4\), \(D_8\), or to a subgroup of \(A_4\). Elliptic quartics of \(\text{PG}(3,q)\) are birationally isomorphic to elliptic curves, in particular one can consider their \(j\)-invariant. The main result of the paper is a proof of the completeness of the near-MDS code given by \(\Gamma_4\), for \(q\geq 113\) and \(j(\Gamma_4)\neq0\). This means that the code obtained by adding any rational point of \(\text{PG}(3,q)\) is no more near-MDS. The proof is based on a result for elliptic curves which is interesting by itself: assume \(q\geq 113\) and let \(E\) be a plane elliptic curve defined over \(\mathbb F_q\), with \(j(E)\neq0\); then, through every rational point of the plane outside \(E(\mathbb F_q)\) there are at least two lines meeting \(E(\mathbb F_q)\) in three pairwise distinct points.