Hermitian codes with automorphism group isomorphic to \(\operatorname{PGL}(2,q)\) with \(q\) odd (Q730366)

The Hermitian curve \(\mathcal{H}\) with affine equation \(y^q+y=x^{q+1}\), defined over a finite field \(\mathbb F_{q^2}\), has \(q^3+1\) rational points and hence it is a \textit{maximal curve} (curve attaining the upper Hasse-Weil bound). \(\mathcal{H}\) is a source of good algebraic-geometry (Goppa) codes. The most classical Hermitian codes are the \textit{functional codes} \(C_L(D,G)\) associated with the divisors \(G=mP\), \(P\) an \(\mathbb{F}_{q^2}\)-rational point on \(\mathcal{H}\) and \(D\) the divisor sum of all the rational points of \(\mathcal{H}\) others than \(P\). But better codes can be obtained whenever \(P\) is replaced by a higher degree place \(P\), see [\textit{G. Korchmáros} and \textit{G. P. Nagy}, J. Pure Appl. Algebra 217, No. 12, 2371--2381 (2013; Zbl 1282.14057)]. The dual codes of the \(C_L(D,G)\) codes are the \textit{differential codes} \(C_{\Omega}(D,G)\). But these codes are monomially equivalents to functional codes (Proposition 3.1) which ``allows us to restrict our investigation to the functional Goppa code \(C_L(D,G)\)''. The present paper studies the case \(q\) odd, \(m\leq q^2-3\), \(\deg(P)= q+1\) and \(D\) the sum of the \(q^3-q\) \(\mathbb{F}_{q^2}\)-rational points on \(\mathcal{H}\) not in the \textit{Baer suboval}. Section 3 determines the parameters of these codes. Their length is always \(n=q^3-q\), and Theorems 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.6 and 3.8 deal with the dimension and the minimum distance for different values of \(m\). As the paper points out the distance is equal to the Goppa designed distance \(\delta=n-\deg(G)\) ``for any \(m\) even and for \(m\) odd in the range \(m>1/2(q-1)\), but \(C_L(D,G)\) has better minimum distance for \(m\) odd in the range \(0<m\leq 1/2(q-1)\)''. Section 4 studies the automorphism groups of \(C_L(D,mP)\), assuming \(1\leq m \leq q-2\). Theorem 4.2 proves that the permutation automorphism group of \(C_L(D,mP)\) is isomorphic to the projective linear group \(\mathrm{PGL}(2,q)\), while Theorem 4.4 proves that the monomial automorphism group is isomorphic to a direct product of \(\mathrm{PGL}(2,q)\) and a cyclic group of order \(q^2-1\). Finally Theorem 4.6 shows that the group generated by permutation, monomial and semilinear automorphisms of \(C_L(D,mP)\) is isomorphic to a semidirect product of \(P\Gamma L(2,q)\) by a cyclic subgroup of order \(q^2-1\).