No label defined (Q4336971)

The author considers \(q\)-ary linear codes as coming from evaluating forms of a fixed degree on \({\mathbb{F}}_q\)-rational points on (the affine cone over) a projective variety. The weight of a codeword is then the difference between the number of rational points of the variety and the number of rational points on the intersection of the variety with the hypersurface defined by that form. By applying a Veronese mapping, one may assume that the form is linear. A bound on the weight then follows from the Lefschetz hyperplane theorem, comparing the cohomology of the variety and its hyperplane section, and the relation between the number of rational points and the trace of Frobenius acting on cohomology groups. The author uses a version of the Lefschetz theorem due to \textit{A. N. Skorobogatov} [Isr. J. Math. 80, No. 3, 359-379 (1992; Zbl 0774.11045)] that is valid if the section is singular, and a theorem of \textit{F. L. Zak} [Funct. Anal. Appl. 21, 32-41 (1987; Zbl 0623.14026)] to bound the dimension of the singular locus in certain cases. Special attention is paid to the case of complete intersections, which has been studied by \textit{C. Hooley} [J. Number Theory 38, No. 3, 338-358 (1991; Zbl 0729.11028)]. Codes on Hermitian varieties are considered to illustrate these results. For the entire collection see [Zbl 0859.00020].