Hermitian codes from higher degree places (Q392232)

Algebraic-geometry (AG) codes, introduced by Goppa, are linear codes constructed from algebraic curves defined over a finite field \(\mathbb{F}_{q}\). It provides linear codes evaluating certain rational functions, whose poles are prescribed by a given \(\mathbb{F}_{q}\)-rational divisor \(G\), at some set of \(\mathbb{F}_{q}\)-rational points disjoint from \(\mathrm{supp}(G)\). The dual to such a code can be obtained by computing residues of differential forms. The former are the functional codes, and the latter are the differential codes, denoted by \(C_L (D, G)\) and \(C_{\Omega} (D, G)\). Using \(n\) rational points such that \( n > \deg (G) > 2g-2\), where \(g\) is the genus of the curve, a lower bound on the minimum distance for \(C_L (D, G)\) is \(n-\deg G\), and for \(C_{\Omega} (D, G)\) is \(\deg G-(2g-2)\). These values are the designed minimum distances. Typically the divisor \(G\) is taken to be a multiple \(mP\) of a single point \(P\) of degree one. \textit{G. L. Matthews} and \textit{T. W. Michel} [``One-point codes using places of higher degree'', IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory 51, 1590--1593 (2005)] investigated the minimum distances of certain AG codes arising from a higher degree point \(P\). They show that there exist special values of \(m\) for which such a code \(C_{\Omega} (D, mP)\) has bigger minimum distance than the designed one and that even better improvements may occur whenever the gap sequence at \(P\) has certain specific properties. In this paper the authors consider those of such codes which are constructed from the Hermitian curve over \(\mathbb{F}_{q^2}\). They determine the Weierstrass gap sequence for points of degree \(3\) and compute the Matthews-Michel bound with the corresponding improvement using a different approach based on geometry rather than function field theory.