The MacWilliams Identity for Krawtchouk Association Schemes

Abstract

The weight distribution of an error correcting code is a crucial statistic in determining its performance. One key tool for relating the weight of a code to that of its dual is the MacWilliams Identity, first developed for the Hamming association scheme. This identity has two forms: one is a functional transformation of the weight enumerators, while the other is a direct relation of the weight distributions via eigenvalues of the association scheme. The functional transformation form can, in particular, be used to derive important moment identities for the weight distribution of codes. In this thesis, we focus initially on extending the functional transformation to codes based on skew-symmetric and Hermitian matrices. A generalised b-algebra and new fundamental homogeneous polynomials are then identified and proven to generate the eigenvalues of a specific subclass of association schemes, Krawtchouk association schemes. Based on the new set of MacWilliams Identities as a functional transform, we derive several moments of the weight distribution for all of these codes.