A new approach towards the Golomb-Welch conjecture (Q2637233)

The Manhattan distance between two words, \(u=(u_1,u_2,\ldots,u_n)\) and \(v=(v_1,v_2,\ldots,v_n)\), in \(\mathbb{Z}^n\) is defined as \(d_M(u,v)=\sum_{i=1}^n |u_i-v_i|\). The Manhattan sphere of radius \(r\) around a codeword \(c\) is given by \(\{x \in \mathbb{Z}^n : d_M(x,c) \leq r\}\). A set of codewords whose Manhattan spheres of radius \(r\) are nonoverlapping is an \(r\)-error-correcting code. Moreover, if the spheres form a tiling of \(\mathbb{Z}^n\), then we have a perfect \(r\)-error-correcting code. The Lee distance between two words, \(u=(u_1,u_2,\ldots ,u_n)\) and \(v=(v_1,v_2,\ldots ,v_n)\), in \(\mathbb{Z}_q^n\) is defined as \(d_L(u,v) = \sum_{i=1}^n \min(|u_i-v_i|,q-|u_i-v_i|)\). A perfect \(r\)-error-correcting code in \(\mathbb{Z}_q^n\) under the Lee metric gives a (periodic) perfect \(r\)-error-correcting code in \(\mathbb{Z}^n\) under the Manhattan metric. In particular, this implication can used to prove nonexistence of the former type of codes via nonexistence of the letter. \textit{S. W. Golomb} and \textit{L. R. Welch} [SIAM J. Appl. Math. 18, 302--317 (1970; Zbl 0192.56302)]conjectured that there are no perfect \(r\)-error-correcting codes in \(\mathbb{Z}^n\) for \(n \geq 3\) and \(r \geq 2\). So far, this conjecture has been proved only in some special cases. In this work, the cases of \(n \leq 12\) and \(r=2\) are settled for \textit{linear} codes. Quasi-perfect codes in \(\mathbb{Z}^n\) are also studied.