C. Ding, Z. Zhou / Discrete Mathematics 321 (2014) 76–89 77
where
S
n
(x) =
n−1
i=0
s
i
x
i
∈ GF(q)[x]
and s
∞
= (s
i
)
∞
i=0
is a sequence of period n over GF(q). Throughout this paper, we call the cyclic code C
s
with the generator
polynomial of (1) the code defined by the sequence s
∞
, and the sequence s
∞
the defining sequence of the cyclic code C
s
.
One basic question is whether good cyclic codes can be constructed with this approach. It turns out that the code C
s
could
be an optimal or almost optimal linear code if the sequence s
∞
is properly designed [6].
In this paper, several types of monomials and trinomials over GF(2
m
) will be employed to construct a number of classes
of binary cyclic codes. Lower bounds on the minimum weight of some classes of the cyclic codes are derived, in some cases
we determine the exact minimal distance. The dimensions of the codes of this paper are flexible. Some of the codes obtained
in this paper are optimal or almost optimal as they meet certain bounds. Several open problems regarding cyclic codes from
monomials and trinomials are also presented in this paper.
The first motivation of this study is that some of the codes constructed in this paper could be optimal or almost optimal.
The second motivation is the simplicity of the constructions of these cyclic codes that may lead to efficient encoding and
decoding algorithms.
2. Preliminaries
In this section, we present basic notations and results of q-cyclotomic cosets, highly nonlinear functions, and sequences
that will be employed throughout the paper.
2.1. Some notations fixed throughout this paper
Throughout this paper, we adopt the following notations unless otherwise stated:
• q = 2, m is a positive integer, r = q
m
, and n = r − 1.
• Z
n
= {0, 1, 2, . . . , n − 1} is the usual ring of integers modulo n.
• α is a generator of GF(r)
∗
, and m
a
(x) is the minimal polynomial of a ∈ GF(r) over GF(q).
• N
q
(x) is a function defined by N
q
(i) = 0 if i ≡ 0 (mod q) and N
q
(i) = 1 otherwise, where i is any nonnegative integer.
• Tr(x) is the trace function from GF(r) to GF(q).
• By Database we mean the collection of the tables of best linear codes known maintained by Markus Grassl at http://
www.codetables.de/.
2.2. The linear span and minimal polynomial of periodic sequences
Let s
∞
= (s
i
)
∞
i=0
be a sequence of period L over GF(q). A polynomial c(x) =
ℓ
i=0
c
i
x
i
over GF(q), where c
0
= 1, is called
a characteristic polynomial of s
∞
if
−c
0
s
i
= c
1
s
i−1
+ c
2
s
i−2
+ · · · + c
l
s
i−ℓ
for all i ≥ ℓ.
The characteristic polynomial of smallest degree is called the minimal polynomial of s
∞
, and denoted by M
s
(x). The degree
of the minimal polynomial is referred to as the linear span or linear complexity of s
∞
. Since we require the constant term of
any characteristic polynomial to be 1, the minimal polynomial of any periodic sequence s
∞
is to be unique. In addition, any
characteristic polynomial must be a multiple of the minimal polynomial. It should be noticed that in some references the
reciprocal of M
s
(x) is called the minimal polynomial of the sequence s
∞
(see [1,15]).
There are a few ways to determine their linear span and minimal polynomials of a periodic sequence. One of them is
given in the following lemma [8, p. 87, Theorem 5.3].
Lemma 1. Let s
∞
be a sequence of period L over GF(q). Define S
L
(x) =
L−1
i=0
s
i
x
i
∈ GF(q)[x]. Then the minimal polynomial
M
s
(x) of s
∞
is given by
x
L
− 1
gcd(x
L
− 1, S
L
(x))
(2)
and the linear span L
s
of s
∞
is given by L − deg(gcd(x
L
− 1, S
L
(x))).
It is well known that any sequence s
∞
over GF(q) of period q
m
− 1 has a unique expansion of the form [15, p. 87]
s
t
=
q
m
−2
i=0
c
i
α
it
, for all t ≥ 0. (3)
An alternative way to compute the linear span and minimal polynomial of M
s
(x) is based on (3) and a result in [1].
Lemma 2. Let s
∞
be a sequence over GF(q) of period q
m
− 1 with the expansion in (3). Let the index set be I = {i|c
i
= 0}, then
the minimal polynomial M
s
(x) of s
∞
is M
s
(x) =
i∈I
(1 − α
i
x), and the linear span of s
∞
is |I|.