Peter Boyvalenkov

Maryam Bajalan, Peter Boyvalenkov, Ferruh Özbudak

Mixed (asymmetric) orthogonal arrays (MOAs) generalize classical orthogonal arrays by allowing columns over different alphabets. However, their study requires very different structural tools than those used for symmetric orthogonal arrays (OAs), since several key features of the symmetric setting are no longer available in the mixed case, including Euclidean duality, a unique global index, and certain classical bounds. In this paper, we establish three structural results for mixed orthogonal arrays. First, we prove a Singleton-type upper bound and obtain a characterization of MDS and almost-MDS mixed orthogonal arrays. Second, we introduce a trace duality for $\mathbb{F}_q$-linear MOAs over $\prod_{i=1}^{s} \mathbb{F}_{q^{n_i}}$ and establish a correspondence with $\mathbb{F}_q$-linear error-block codes that determines the strength of the MOA via the dual distance of the associated error-block code. Finally, we develop a structural theory of irredundant mixed orthogonal arrays (IrMOAs), motivated by their role in the construction of $t$-uniform and absolutely maximally entangled (AME) quantum states. In the extremal case $t=\lfloor s/2\rfloor$, we prove that $\mathbb{F}_q$-linear IrMOAs with minimum index $1$ (yielding AME states of minimal support) are equivalent to $\mathbb{F}_q$-linear error-block MDS codes.

Peter Boyvalenkov, Ferruh Ozbudak, Maya Stoyanova

We obtain new linear programming (LP) and constructive bounds for the covering radius of binary orthogonal arrays of strength $2k$. Our LP bounds develop in two alternative scenarios. First, if a point $y \in F_2^n$, where the covering radius of some orthogonal array $C \subset F_2^n$ of strength $2k$ is realized, is such that the farthest point of $C$ to $y$ is not antipodal to $y$ we obtain a bound which is better than the Tiet{ä}v{ä}inen (or Fazekas-Levenshtein) bound for non-tight arrays (i.e., the cardinality strictly exceeds the Rao lower bound). Second, if all points where the covering radius is realized are such that their antipodes are in $C$, we obtain a bound which depends on the cardinality of $C$ and is again better whenever the orthogonal array is not tight. We further describe three infinite families of binary orthogonal arrays related to the duals of BCH, Melas, and Zetterberg codes. For these families, we derive lower bounds on the covering radius by applying techniques from algebraic curves over finite fields, while the improved linear programming methods developed in this paper provide upper bounds, leading in some cases to fairly close estimates.