Schubert Varieties, Linear Codes and Enumerative Combinatorics

We consider linear error correcting codes associated to higher dimensional projective varieties defined over a finite field. The problem of determining the basic parameters of such codes often leads to some interesting and difficult questions in combinatorics and algebraic geometry. This is illustrated by codes associated to Schubert varieties in Grassmannians, called Schubert codes, which have recently been studied. The basic parameters such as the length, dimension and minimum distance of these codes are known only in special cases. An upper bound for the minimum distance is known and it is conjectured that this bound is achieved. We give explicit formulae for the length and dimension of arbitrary Schubert codes and prove the minimum distance conjecture in the affirmative for codes associated to Schubert divisors.Comment: 12 page

Linear Codes associated to Determinantal Varieties

We consider a class of linear codes associated to projective algebraic varieties defined by the vanishing of minors of a fixed size of a generic matrix. It is seen that the resulting code has only a small number of distinct weights. The case of varieties defined by the vanishing of 2 x 2 minors is considered in some detail. Here we obtain the complete weight distribution. Moreover, several generalized Hamming weights are determined explicitly and it is shown that the first few of them coincide with the distinct nonzero weights. One of the tools used is to determine the maximum possible number of matrices of rank 1 in a linear space of matrices of a given dimension over a finite field. In particular, we determine the structure and the maximum possible dimension of linear spaces of matrices in which every nonzero matrix has rank 1.Comment: 12 pages; to appear in Discrete Mat

Decomposable Subspaces, Linear Sections of Grassmann Varieties, and Higher Weights of Grassmann Codes

Given a homogeneous component of an exterior algebra, we characterize those subspaces in which every nonzero element is decomposable. In geometric terms, this corresponds to characterizing the projective linear subvarieties of the Grassmann variety with its Plucker embedding. When the base field is finite, we consider the more general question of determining the maximum number of points on sections of Grassmannians by linear subvarieties of a fixed (co)dimension. This corresponds to a known open problem of determining the complete weight hierarchy of linear error correcting codes associated to Grassmann varieties. We recover most of the known results as well as prove some new results. In the process we obtain, and utilize, a simple generalization of the Griesmer-Wei bound for arbitrary linear codes.Comment: 16 page

Equidistant Codes in the Grassmannian

Equidistant codes over vector spaces are considered. For $k$-dimensional subspaces over a large vector space the largest code is always a sunflower. We present several simple constructions for such codes which might produce the largest non-sunflower codes. A novel construction, based on the Pl\"{u}cker embedding, for 1-intersecting codes of $k$-dimensional subspaces over \F_q^n, $n \geq \binom{k+1}{2}$, where the code size is $\frac{q^{k+1}-1}{q-1}$ is presented. Finally, we present a related construction which generates equidistant constant rank codes with matrices of size $n \times \binom{n}{2}$ over \F_q, rank $n-1$, and rank distance $n-1$.Comment: 16 page

Problems on q-Analogs in Coding Theory

The interest in $q$-analogs of codes and designs has been increased in the last few years as a consequence of their new application in error-correction for random network coding. There are many interesting theoretical, algebraic, and combinatorial coding problems concerning these q-analogs which remained unsolved. The first goal of this paper is to make a short summary of the large amount of research which was done in the area mainly in the last few years and to provide most of the relevant references. The second goal of this paper is to present one hundred open questions and problems for future research, whose solution will advance the knowledge in this area. The third goal of this paper is to present and start some directions in solving some of these problems.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:0805.3528 by other author