A conjecture on the minimum length of linear codes over finite fields (Q6892121)

One of the problems in coding theory is to find \(n_q (k, d),\) the minimum length \(n\) for which an \([n, k, d]_q\) code exists. The Griesmer bound gives a lower bound on the length \(n\) when \(k,\) and \(q\) are fixed: \(n\geq g_q(k,d)=\sum\limits_{i=0}^{k-1}\lceil\frac{d}{q^i}\rceil.\)\N\NThe authors state the following problem: For fixed \(q\) and \(k,\) find the integer \(D_{q,k}\) such that \(n_q (k, d) = g_q (k, d)\) for all \(d > D_{q,k}\) and that \(n_q (k, d) > g_q (k, d)\) for \(d = D_{q,k}\) and determine \(n_q(k,D_{q,k}).\) Let \(l, \alpha,\) and \(\beta\) are integers such that \(l\geq 0, 1 \leq \alpha \leq q-1\) and \(\beta = \beta_{l,\alpha} = (q-1)\binom{l+1}{2}+(l+1)\alpha-l.\) Furthermore denote \( B_{q, k}=(k-2) q^{k-1}-(k-1) q^{k-2}\), \(C_{q, k}=q^{k-2-l}\left(((q-1) l+\alpha-3) q^{l+1}+q^{k-\beta}+q-\alpha\right)\) for \(\beta \leq k \leq \beta+l.\) This work state the following conjecture: (a) \(D_{q,k} = B_{q,k}\) for \(q \ge k \ge 3;\) (b) \(D_{q,k} = C_{q,k}\) for \(3 \le q < k;\) (c) \(n_q (k, D_{q,k}) = g_q (k, D_{q,k}) + 1.\) The main results prove that part (a) is valid in several cases, with \(D_{q,k} = B_{q,k}\) for \(q\geq k,\) \(k = 6, 7, 10,\) and the cases remaining are \((k, q) = (8, 8), (8,9), (9,9).\) The existence of Griesmer codes for Conjecture 1(c) is also shown. Some of the results are obtained via exhaustive computer search using \textit{I. Bouyukliev}'s Q-EXTENSIONS [Serdica J. Comput. 1, No. 2, 115--130 (2007; Zbl 1221.94098)].