The linear codes of t-designs held in the Reed-Muller and Simplex codes

Abstract

A fascinating topic of combinatorics is the study of t-designs, which has a very long history. The incidence matrix of a t-design generates a linear code over GF(q) for any prime power q, which is called the linear code of the t-design over GF(q). On the other hand, some linear codes hold t-designs with t ≥ 1. The purpose of this paper is to study the linear codes of t-designs held in the Reed-Muller and Simplex codes. Some general theory for the linear codes of t-designs held in linear codes is presented. Several open problems are also presented.