Constacyclic Codes over Finite Chain Rings of Characteristic p

Let R be a finite commutative chain ring of characteristic p with invariants p,r, and k. In this paper, we study λ-constacyclic codes of an arbitrary length N over R, where λ is a unit of R. We first reduce this to investigate constacyclic codes of length ps (N=n1ps,p∤n1) over a certain finite chain ring CR(uk,rb) of characteristic p, which is an extension of R. Then we use discrete Fourier transform (DFT) to construct an isomorphism γ between R[x]/<xN−λ> and a direct sum ⊕b∈IS(rb) of certain local rings, where I is the complete set of representatives of p-cyclotomic cosets modulo n1. By this isomorphism, all codes over R and their dual codes are obtained from the ideals of S(rb). In addition, we determine explicitly the inverse of γ so that the unique polynomial representations of λ-constacyclic codes may be calculated. Finally, for k=2 the exact number of such codes is provided.

Decoding Linear Codes over Chain Rings Given by Parity Check Matrices

We design a decoding algorithm for linear codes over finite chain rings given by their parity check matrices. It is assumed that decoding algorithms over the residue field are known at each degree of the adic decomposition.