Adjoint and duality for rank-metric codes in a skew polynomial framework

TL;DR

This paper explores the structure of rank-metric codes within skew polynomial rings, introducing new duality operations and classifying inequivalent MRD codes with explicit algebraic descriptions.

Contribution

It provides explicit skew-polynomial descriptions of transpose and dual operations for MRD codes in a noncommutative algebraic framework, expanding the understanding of their structure.

Findings

Developed explicit descriptions of transpose and dual operations

Computed nuclear parameters of the codes

Identified many new inequivalent MRD codes for infinite parameters

Abstract

Skew polynomial rings provide a fundamental example of noncommutative principal ideal domains. Special quotients of these rings yield matrix algebras that play a central role in the theory of rank-metric codes. Recent breakthroughs have shown that specific subsets of these quotients produce the largest known families of maximum rank distance (MRD) codes. In this work, we present a systematic study of transposition and duality operations within quotients of skew polynomial rings. We develop explicit skew-polynomial descriptions of the transpose and dual code constructions, enabling us to determine the adjoint and dual codes associated with the MRD code families recently introduced by Sheekey et al. Building on these results, we compute the nuclear parameters of these codes, and prove that, for a new infinite set of parameters, many of these MRD codes are inequivalent to previously known constructions in the literature.