An Analytic and Probabilistic Approach to the Problem of Matroid Representibility

We introduce various quantities that can be defined for an arbitrary matroid, and show that certain conditions on these quantities imply that a matroid is not representable over $\mathbb{F}_q$. Mostly, for a matroid of rank $r$, we examine the proportion of size-$(r-k)$ subsets that are dependent, and give bounds, in terms of the cardinality of the matroid and $q$ a prime power, for this proportion, below which the matroid is not representable over $\mathbb{F}_q$. We also explore connections between the defined quantities and demonstrate that they can be used to prove that random matrices have high proportions of subsets of columns independent

An Algebraic-Coding Equivalence to the Maximum Distance Separable Conjecture

We formulate an Algebraic-Coding Equivalence to the Maximum Distance Separable Conjecture. Specifically, we present novel proofs of the following equivalent statements. Let $(q,k)$ be a fixed pair of integers satisfying $q$ is a prime power and $2\leq k \leq q$. We denote by $\mathcal{P}_q$ the vector space of functions from a finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$ to itself, which can be represented as the space $\mathcal{P}_q := \mathbb{F}_q[x]/(x^q-x)$ of polynomial functions. We denote by $\mathcal{O}_n \subset \mathcal{P}_q$ the set of polynomials that are either the zero polynomial, or have at most $n$ distinct roots in $\mathbb{F}_q$. Given two subspaces $Y,Z$ of $\mathcal{P}_q$, we denote by $\langle Y,Z \rangle$ their span. We prove that the following are equivalent. [A] Suppose that either: 1. $q$ is odd 2. $q$ is even and $k \not\in \{3, q-1\}$. Then there do not exist distinct subspaces $Y$ and $Z$ of $\mathcal{P}_q$ such that: 3. $dim(\langle Y, Z \rangle) = k$ 4. $dim(Y) = dim(Z) = k-1$. 5. $\langle Y, Z \rangle \subset \mathcal{O}_{k-1}$ 6. $Y, Z \subset \mathcal{O}_{k-2}$ 7. $Y\cap Z \subset \mathcal{O}_{k-3}$. [B] Suppose $q$ is odd, or, if $q$ is even, $k \not\in \{3, q-1\}$. There is no integer $s$ with $q \geq s > k$ such that the Reed-Solomon code $\mathcal{R}$ over $\mathbb{F}_q$ of dimension $s$ can have $s-k+2$ columns $\mathcal{B} = \{b_1,\ldots,b_{s-k+2}\}$ added to it, such that: 8. Any $s \times s$ submatrix of $\mathcal{R} \cup \mathcal{B}$ containing the first $s-k$ columns of $\mathcal{B}$ is independent. 9. $\mathcal{B} \cup \{[0,0,\ldots,0,1]\}$ is independent. [C] The MDS conjecture is true for the given $(q,k)$.Comment: This is version: 5.6.18. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1611.0235

Counting generalized Reed-Solomon codes

In this article we count the number of generalized Reed-Solomon (GRS) codes of dimension k and length n, including the codes coming from a non-degenerate conic plus nucleus. We compare our results with known formulae for the number of 3-dimensional MDS codes of length n=6,7,8,9

A note on full weight spectrum codes

A linear $[n,k]_q$ code $C$ is said to be a full weight spectrum (FWS) code if there exist codewords of each nonzero weight less than or equal to $n$. In this brief communication we determine necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of linear $[n,k]_q$ full weight spectrum (FWS) codes. Central to our approach is the geometric view of linear codes, whereby columns of a generator matrix correspond to points in $PG(k-1,q)$

Extending small arcs to large arcs

This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in European Journal of Mathematics. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40879-017-0193-xAn arc is a set of vectors of the k-dimensional vector space over the finite field with q elements Fq , in which every subset of size k is a basis of the space, i.e. every k-subset is a set of linearly independent vectors. Given an arc G in a space of odd characteristic, we prove that there is an upper bound on the largest arc containing G. The bound is not an explicit bound but is obtained by computing properties of a matrix constructed from G. In some cases we can also determine the largest arc containing G, or at least determine the hyperplanes which contain exactly k-2 vectors of the large arc. The theorems contained in this article may provide new tools in the computational classification and construction of large arcs.Postprint (author's final draft