The \(b\)-symbol weight distributions of all semiprimitive irreducible cyclic codes (Q6041584)

Let \(\mathbb{F}_q\) be a finite field with \(q\) elements. Denote by \(w_H(\cdot)\) the usual Hamming weight function in \( \mathbb{F}_q^n\). For \(1 \leq b < n\), let the Boolean function \(\overline{\mathcal{Z}} : \mathbb{F}_q^b \rightarrow \{0, 1\}\) be defined by \(\overline{\mathcal{Z}}(v) = 0\) iff \(v\) is the zero vector in \(\mathbb{F}_q^b\). The \(b\)-symbol Hamming weight, \(w_b(x)\), of \(x = (x_0,\ldots, x_{n-1})\in \mathbb{F}_q^n\) is defined as \[w_b(x):= w_H (\overline{\mathcal{Z}}(x_0,\ldots, x_{b-1}), \overline{\mathcal{Z}}(x_1,\ldots, x_b),\ldots, \overline{\mathcal{Z}}(x_{n-1}, \ldots , x_{b+n-2 \ (\bmod\ n)})).\] When \(b = 1\), we have \(w_1(x) = w_H (x)\). Let \(\mathcal{C}\) be a code over \(\mathbb{F}_q\) of length \(n\). Let \(A_i(b)\) denote the number of codewords with \(b\)-symbol Hamming weight \(i\) in \(\mathcal{C}\). The \(b\)-symbol Hamming weight enumerator of \(\mathcal{C}\) is defined by \(1 + A_1^{(b)}T + A_2^{(b)}T^2 + \cdots+ A_n^{(b)}T^n\). If \(b = 1\), then the \(b\)-symbol Hamming weight enumerator of \(\mathcal{C}\) is the ordinary Hamming weight enumerator of \(\mathcal{C}\). Some contributions to the \(b\)-symbol Hamming weight enumerator of a code can be found in the literature. Up to a new invariant \(\mu(b)\), the complete \(b\)-symbol weight distribution of some irreducible cyclic codes was recently obtained in [\textit{H. Zhu} et al., Des. Codes Cryptography 90, No. 5, 1113--1125 (2022; Zbl 1508.94106)]. Let \(n\) and \(N\) as integers such that \(nN = q^r -1\), \( r = \mathrm{Ord}_n(q)\), and \(\gamma\) denotes a fixed primitive element of \(\mathbb{F}_{q^r}\). Then the set \[\mathfrak{C} := \{(Tr_{\mathbb{F}_{q^r}/\mathbb{F}_q} (a\gamma^{Ni}))_{i=0}^{n-1} \mid a \in \mathbb{F}_{q^r} \},\] is called an irreducible cyclic code of length \(n\) and dimension \(r\) over \(\mathbb{F}_q\). Let \(q = p^t\). For an integer \(u\) with \(\gcd(p, u) = 1\), \(p\) is said to be semiprimitive modulo \(u\) if there exists a positive integer \(d\) such that \(u|(p^d + 1)\). Set \(\Delta = (q^r-1)/(q-1)\) and \(u =\gcd(\Delta, N)\). Then, any \([n, r]\) irreducible cyclic code over \(\mathbb{F}_q\) is semiprimitive if \(u \geq 2\) and the prime \(p\) is semiprimitive modulo \(u\). In this paper, the results of Zhu et al. are simplified and generalized. An alternative proof of an already known result which determines the \(b\)-symbol weight distributions of all one-weight and two-weight semiprimitive irreducible cyclic codes is given, and a such alternative proof is used, in order to determine the \(b\)-symbol weight distributions of all one-weight and two-weight semiprimitive irreducible cyclic codes.