A linear construction for certain Kerdock and Preparata codes

The Nordstrom-Robinson, Kerdock, and (slightly modified) Pre\- parata codes are shown to be linear over \ZZ_4, the integers $\bmod~4$. The Kerdock and Preparata codes are duals over \ZZ_4, and the Nordstrom-Robinson code is self-dual. All these codes are just extended cyclic codes over \ZZ_4. This provides a simple definition for these codes and explains why their Hamming weight distributions are dual to each other. First- and second-order Reed-Muller codes are also linear codes over \ZZ_4, but Hamming codes in general are not, nor is the Golay code.Comment: 5 page

p-Adic estimates of Hamming weights in Abelian codes over Galois rings

A generalization of McEliece's theorem on the p-adic valuation of Hamming weights of words in cyclic codes is proved in this paper by means of counting polynomial techniques introduced by Wilson along with a technique known as trace-averaging introduced here. The original theorem of McEliece concerned cyclic codes over prime fields. Delsarte and McEliece later extended this to Abelian codes over finite fields. Calderbank, Li, and Poonen extended McEliece's original theorem to cover cyclic codes over the rings /spl Zopf//sub 2//sup d/, Wilson strengthened their results and extended them to cyclic codes over /spl Zopf//sub p//sup d/, and Katz strengthened Wilson's results and extended them to Abelian codes over /spl Zopf//sub p//sup d/. It is natural to ask whether there is a single analogue of McEliece's theorem which correctly captures the behavior of codes over all finite fields and all rings of integers modulo prime powers. In this paper, this question is answered affirmatively: a single theorem for Abelian codes over Galois rings is presented. This theorem contains all previously mentioned results and more

On the Apparent Duality of the Kerdock and Preparata Codes

. The Kerdock and extended Preparata codes are something of an enigma in coding theory since they are both Hamming-distance invariant and have weight enumerators that are MacWilliams duals just as if they were dual linear codes. In this paper, we explain, by constructing in a natural way a Preparata-like code PL from the Kerdock code K, why the existence of a distance-invariant code with weight distribution that is the McWilliams transform of that of the Kerdock code is only to be expected. The construction involves quaternary codes over the ring ZZ4 of integers modulo 4. We exhibit a quaternary code Q and its quaternary dual Q ? which, under the Gray mapping, give rise to the Kerdock code K and Preparata-like code PL , respectively. The code PL is identical in weight and distance distribution to the extended Preparata code. The linearity of Q and Q ? ensures that the binary codes K and PL are distance invariant, while their duality as quaternary codes guarantees that K and PL ha..