Small weight codewords in the dual code of points and hyperplanes in PG\((n, q), q\) even (Q766247)

Let \(PG(n,q)\) be the projective space of dimension \(n\) over \(\mathbb{F}_{q}\). The code \(C_{t}(n,q)\), \(0<t<n\), is the binary code generated by the incidence matrix of the \(t\)-spaces and the points of \(PG(n,q)\), \(q=2^h\). The minimum distance of these codes and their dual is known. In this paper, the author studies the code \(C^{\bot}_{n-1}(n,q)\) and in particular he classifies the codewords in \(C^{\bot}_{n-1}(n,q)\) of weight smaller than \(q+\sqrt[3] {q^2} +1\). The main theorem states that a codeword \(c \in C^{\bot}_{n-1}(n,q)\), \(q=2^h\geq 64\), \(q\) square, with \(w(c)\leq q+\sqrt[3] {q^2} +1\), is the incidence vector of an even set in a plane of \(PG(n,q)\) or a particular incidence vector of a set in a \(3\)-dimensional Baer subgeometry in \(PG(n,q)\). To obtain this characterization, some connections with the classification of small blocking sets in \(PG(2,q)\), \(q\) even, are used. In the last section the cases \(q=4\) and \(q=16\) are investigated.