MDS and self-dual codes over rings (Q690417)

A constacyclic code over a ring \(R\) is a submodule \(C\) of \(R^n\) such that if \((x_0,x_1,\dots,x_{n-1}) \in C\) then \((\lambda x_{n-1},x_0,\dots, x_{n-2}) \in C\) for some constant \(\lambda\). These codes are generally understood as ideals in \(R[x]/ \langle x^n - \lambda \rangle.\) The authors give the structure of constacyclic codes over chain rings and formal power series rings. They present necessary and sufficient conditions on the existence of codes over principal ideal rings meeting a generalized Singleton bound. They give a construction of infinite families of self-dual codes, that is, codes satisfying \(C=C^\perp\), meeting this bound over finite chain rings, formal power series rings and principal ideal rings. Generalized Reed-Solomon codes are also defined over principal ideal rings.