On the second greedy weight for linear codes of dimension 3 (Q5951935)

The authors study the difference \(g_2- d_2\) for a \(q\)-ary linear \([n,3,d]\) code \(C\). Here \(g_2\) is the second greedy weight (= the smallest size of the support of a 2-dimensional subcode of \(C\) that contains a codeword of weight \(d\)) and \(d_2\) is the second generalized Hamming weight (= the smallest size of the support of a 2-dimensional subcode of \(C\)). The extra cost to a greedy adversary (in positions read) to get two symbols of information using a certain algorithm is \(g_2- d_2\). The authors show for codes of dimension 3 that the problem is essentially equivalent to finding certain weightings of the points in the projective plane, and weightings that give the maximal value of \(g_2-d_2\) are determined in almost all cases. In particular, the maximal value of \(g_2- d_2\) is determined in all cases for \(q\leq 9\).