A complete classification of doubly even self-dual codes of length 40 (Q456340)

Let \(C^\bot= \{ x \in \mathbb{F}_2^n : \sum x_i y_i = 0, \forall y \in C\}\) be the dual code of a binary linear code \(C \subset \mathbb{F}_2\). One says that \(C\) is self-dual if \(C = C^\bot\), moreover, one says that \(C\) is doubly even if the weight of every codeword of \(C\) is divisible by \(4\). The classification of binary doubly even self-dual codes was initiated by \textit{V. Pless} in [Discrete Math. 3, 209--246 (1972; Zbl 0256.94015)]. Some partial classifications of doubly even codes of length \(40\) are given in the bibliography, and in the article under review a complete classification of such codes is provided. The minimum distance \(d\) of a self-dual code \(C\) is upper bounded by \(d \leq 4 \lfloor n/24 \rfloor + 6\) if \(n \equiv 22~(\mathrm{mod}~24)\), and \(d \leq 4 \lfloor n/24 \rfloor + 4\) otherwise. A code attaining this bound is called extremal. Since every extremal self-dual code of length \(38\) is obtained from a doubly even self dual code by deleting a pair of coordinates that are both \(0\) or \(1\), the binary extremal self-dual codes of length \(38\) are also classified. The authors have set up a web page with the generator matrices of all inequivalent codes considered in this work.