Hermitian codes from higher degree places

Matthews and Michel investigated the minimum distances in certain algebraic-geometry codes arising from a higher degree place $P$. In terms of the Weierstrass gap sequence at $P$, they proved a bound that gives an improvement on the designed minimum distance. In this paper, we consider those of such codes which are constructed from the Hermitian function field. We determine the Weierstrass gap sequence $G(P)$ where $P$ is a degree 3 place, and compute the Matthews and Michel bound with the corresponding improvement. We show more improvements using a different approach based on geometry. We also compare our results with the true values of the minimum distances of Hermitian 1-point codes, as well as with estimates due Xing and Chen

Distance bounds for algebraic geometric codes

Various methods have been used to obtain improvements of the Goppa lower bound for the minimum distance of an algebraic geometric code. The main methods divide into two categories and all but a few of the known bounds are special cases of either the Lundell-McCullough floor bound or the Beelen order bound. The exceptions are recent improvements of the floor bound by Guneri-Stichtenoth-Taskin, and Duursma-Park, and of the order bound by Duursma-Park and Duursma-Kirov. In this paper we provide short proofs for all floor bounds and most order bounds in the setting of the van Lint and Wilson AB method. Moreover, we formulate unifying theorems for order bounds and formulate the DP and DK order bounds as natural but different generalizations of the Feng-Rao bound for one-point codes.Comment: 29 page

Steane-Enlargement of Quantum Codes from the Hermitian Curve

In this paper, we study the construction of quantum codes by applying Steane-enlargement to codes from the Hermitian curve. We cover Steane-enlargement of both usual one-point Hermitian codes and of order bound improved Hermitian codes. In particular, the paper contains two constructions of quantum codes whose parameters are described by explicit formulae, and we show that these codes compare favourably to existing, comparable constructions in the literature.Comment: 11 page

Good Codes From Generalised Algebraic Geometry Codes

Algebraic geometry codes or Goppa codes are defined with places of degree one. In constructing generalised algebraic geometry codes places of higher degree are used. In this paper we present 41 new codes over GF(16) which improve on the best known codes of the same length and rate. The construction method uses places of small degree with a technique originally published over 10 years ago for the construction of generalised algebraic geometry codes.Comment: 3 pages, to be presented at the IEEE Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT 2010) in Austin, Texas, June 201