Intermediate Constacyclic Codes and Scalar-Residue Reed--Muller Layers
For coding theorists, this settles the minimum distance of a class of constacyclic codes and provides structural insights into Reed-Muller codes, though the results are incremental within the domain of algebraic coding theory.
The paper resolves an open problem by proving that the upper bound on the minimum distance of intermediate constacyclic codes is exact, providing a closed-form formula for all admissible parameters. It also determines the minimum affine support for non-terminal scalar-residue layers of generalized Reed-Muller codes, establishing a dichotomy between residue classes 0/1 and others.
A 2024 paper of Sun, Ding and Wang introduced a second class of constacyclic codes over finite fields, denoted $C(q,m,r,\ell)$, with length $(q^m-1)/r$, where $r\mid(q-1)$ and the defining monomials have total $q$-ary degree congruent to $r-1$ modulo $r$. In the non-projective intermediate range $2<r<q-1$ the paper gave a sharp-looking upper bound and a BCH-type lower bound, and left the minimum distance open. We prove that the upper bound is the exact minimum distance for every admissible intermediate parameter. More precisely, if $\ell=(q-1)a+b<(q-1)m-1$, $0\le b\le q-2$, and $b\equiv r-1\pmod r$, then, for every prime power $q$, every divisor $r$ of $q-1$ with $2<r<q-1$, and every $m\ge2$, \[ d(C(q,m,r,\ell))= \begin{cases} \displaystyle \frac{q-1}{r}(q-b+1)q^{m-a-2},&0\le a\le m-2,\\[1mm] \displaystyle \frac{q-b+r-2}{r},&a=m-1. \end{cases} \] The first line settles the open problem of Sun, Ding and Wang; the second line is the terminal case already forced by their BCH bound. We also determine the minimum affine support of every non-terminal scalar-residue layer of a generalized Reed--Muller code. The resulting dichotomy says that the first Reed--Muller weight survives exactly for residue classes $0$ and $1$, while every other residue-matched layer starts at the second Reed--Muller weight. The proof uses the hidden scalar homogeneity of the evaluation model, an orbit-counting obstruction for minimum Reed--Muller supports, and a homogeneous pencil construction that attains the second weight.