Extension theorems for linear codes over finite fields (Q408950)

Let \(\mathcal{C}\) be an \([n,k,d]_q\) code, i.e., a \(k\)-dimensional vector subspace of \(\mathbb{F}_q^n\) with minimum (Hamming) distance \(d\). Let \(G\) be a generator matrix of \(\mathcal{C}\). Then \(\mathcal{C}\) is called \((l,s)\)-extendible if there exist \(l\) vectors \(h_1,\dots,h_l\in \mathbb{F}_q^k\) such that the matrix \([G,h_1^T,\dots,h_l^T]\) is a generator matrix of an \([n+l,k,d+s]_q\) code. In the paper, the author resumes some important theorems regarding the theory on extendible codes. In particular, some conditions to understand whether an \([n,k,d]_q\) code is extendible or not, based on geometric methods, are given. The extension theorems could be applied to the optimal linear codes problem, i.e., to the problem to optimize one of the parameters \(n,k,d\), leaving the other two fixed.