Paper 2, Section II, G
Define a cyclic code. Show that there is a bijection between the cyclic codes of length and the factors of over the field of order 2 .
What is meant by saying that is a primitive th root of unity in a finite field extension of ? What is meant by saying that is a BCH code of length with defining set ? Show that such a code has minimum distance at least .
Suppose that is a finite field extension of in which factorises into linear factors. Show that if is a root of then is a primitive 7 th root of unity and is also a root of . Quoting any further results that you need show that the code of length 7 with defining set is the Hamming code.
[Results on the Vandermonde determinant may be used without proof provided they are quoted correctly.]