On codewords in the dual code of classical generalised quadrangles and classical polar spaces

Valentina Pepe, Leo Storme, Geertrui Van de Voorde

Published 2012-01-16Version 1

In [9], the codewords of small weight in the dual code of the code of points and lines of Q(4, q) are characterised. Inspired by this result, using geometrical arguments, we characterise the codewords of small weight in the dual code of the code of points and generators of Q+(5, q) and H(5, q2), and we present lower bounds on the weight of the codewords in the dual of the code of points and k-spaces of the classical polar spaces. Furthermore, we investigate the codewords with the largest weights in these codes, where for q even and k sufficiently small, we determine the maximum weight and characterise the codewords of maximum weight. Moreover, we show that there exists an interval such that for every even number w in this interval, there is a codeword in the dual code of Q+(5, q), q even, with weight w and we show that there is an empty interval in the weight distribution of the dual of the code of Q(4, q), q even. To prove this, we show that a blocking set of Q(4, q), q even, of size q2 +1+r, where 0 < r < (q +4)/6, contains an ovoid of Q(4, q), improving on [5, Theorem 9].