Bounds on the minimum distances of a class of q-ary images of q/sup m/-ary irreducible cyclic codes
Isaac Woungang, Alireza Sadeghian, W.W. Melek · 2004
Let V=(n, k:) be an irreducible cyclic code over F/sub q//sup m/, the finite field of q/sup m/ elements. Let /spl alpha/_ be a basis of F/sub q//sup m/ over F/sub q/. Under the simplifying assumption (n,q)=1, it is shown that d/spl alpha/_(V), the q-ary image of V with respect to /spl alpha/, is decomposable into the direct sum of a fixed number of irreducible quasicyclic codes. This characterization allow us to obtain a lower bound on the minimum distance of d/spl alpha/_(V) by determining a lower bound on the number of not-null blocks in a typical codeword of d/spl alpha/_(V), for four specific subclasses of codes.