Infinite families of 2-designs from a class of affine-invariant codes (Q6089462)

Coding theory and combinatorial \(t\)-designs have close connections and interesting interplay. On one hand, the incidence matrix of any \(t\)-design spans a linear code over any finite fields. A lot of progress in this direction has been made in the literature. On the other hand, both linear and nonlinear codes may hold \(t\)-designs. There are two standard approaches to obtain \(t\)-designs from linear codes. The first one is to study the automorphism group of a linear code \(C.\) If the permutation part of the automorphism group acts \(t\)-transitively on the code \(C,\) then \(C\) holds \(t\)-designs [\textit{E. F. Assmus jun.} and \textit{J. D. Key}, Designs and their codes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (1992; Zbl 0762.05001)]. The second one is to employ Assmus-Mattson Theorem [\textit{E. F. Assmus jun.} and \textit{H. F. Mattson jun.}, J. Comb. Theory 6, 122--151 (1969; Zbl 0179.02901)]. The construction of \(t\)-designs from linear codes have been attracted a lot of attention in recent years. In \(2017\) and \(2018,\) infinite families of \(2\)-designs and \(3\)-designs were obtained from several different classes of linear codes by \textit{C. Ding} [J. Comb. Des. 26, No. 3, 127--144 (2018; Zbl 1391.05057)], \textit{C. Ding} and \textit{C. Li} [Discrete Math. 340, No. 10, 2415--2431 (2017; Zbl 1367.05029)] by applying the Assmus-Mattson Theorem. Recently, also by Assmus-Mattson Theorem, Du and his coauthors have derived infinite families of \(2\)-designs from some different classes of affine-invariant codes [\textit{X. Du} et al., J. Comb. Des. 28, No. 3, 157--170 (2020; Zbl 07796819); \textit{X. Du} et al., Appl. Algebra Eng. Commun. Comput. 33, No. 3, 193--211 (2022; Zbl 1526.94055); \textit{R. Wang} et al., Adv. Math. Commun. 15, No. 4, 663--676 (2021; Zbl 1479.05034); \textit{R. Wang} et al., Int. J. Found. Comput. Sci. 32, No. 3, 253--267 (2021; Zbl 1522.05017)]. It is well known that the first linear code supporting a \(4\)-design was the ternary Golay code discovered in \(1949\) by Golay. However, the question as to whether there is an infinite family of linear codes holding an infinite family of \(t\)-designs for \(t \geq 4\) remains open for \(71\) years. Very recently, \textit{C. Tang} and \textit{C. Ding} [IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory 67, No. 1, 244--254 (2021; Zbl 1465.94117)] settle this longstanding problem by presenting an infinite family of BCH codes holding an infinite family of \(4\)-\((2^{2m+1} + 1, 6, 2^{2m} - 4)\) designs. Constructions of \(t\)-designs by other methods can be found in the literature. Even if \textit{E.-K. Cho} et al. give a spectral characterization of \(t\)-designs in [Adv. Math. Commun. 13, No. 3, 477--503 (2019; Zbl 1415.05184)], it looks that not much progress on the construction of \(t\)-designs from codes has been made so far. The main objective of the paper under review is to construct infinite families of \(2\)-designs from linear codes. In addition, the authors determine the parameters of these \(2\)-designs by considering the weight distribution of the linear codes. As a by-product, the weight distribution of the cyclic codes which is related to the linear codes is also determined.