Non-free extensions of the simplex codes over a chain ring with four elements

Abstract

Let R be a chain ring with four elements. In this paper, we present two new constructions of R-linear codes that contain a subcode associated with a simplex code over the ring R. The simplex codes are defined as the codes generated by a matrix having as columns the homogeneous coordinates of all points in some projective Hjelmslev geometry PHG(R k ). The first construction generalizes a recent result by Kiermaier and Zwanzger to codes of arbitrary dimension. We provide a geometric interpretation of their construction which is then extended to projective Hjelmslev spaces of arbitrary dimension. The second construction exploits the possibility of adding two non-free rows to the generator matrix of a linear code over R associated with a given point set. Though the construction works over both chain rings with four elements, the better codes are obtained for $${R=\mathbb{Z}_4}$$ .