On linear codes which attain the Solomon-Stiffler bound (Q798293)

An \((n,k,d;s)\)-code is an \(s\)-ary linear code \(C\) with code length \(n\), \(k\) information symbols and minimum distance \(d\). For \(d=1+\theta_ 0+\theta_ 1s+\ldots+\theta_{k-1}s^{k-1}\) where \(\theta_ i's\) are integers such that \(0\leq \theta_ i\leq s-1\) for \(i=0,1,\ldots,k-2\) and \(\theta_{k-1}\geq 0\). The main result of this paper proves that in the case \(k\geq 4\), \(\theta_ 0=\theta_ 1=\ldots=\theta_{k-3}=s-1\) and \(\theta_{k-1}=0,\) there exists an \((n,k,d;s)\)-code which attains the Solomon-Stiffler bound [\textit{G. Solomon} and \textit{J. J. Stiffler}, Inf. Control 8, 170--179 (1965; Zbl 0149.15903)] if and only if \(\theta_{k-2}=s-2\) or \(s-1\). In two special cases, it is also shown that \((n,k,d;s)\)-codes which attain the Solomon-Stiffler bound are unique.