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In this paper, we give a geometric characterization of minimal linear codes. In particular, we relate minimal linear codes to cutting blocking sets, introduced in a recent paper by Bonini and Borello. Using this characterization, we derive some bounds on the length and the distance of minimal codes, according to their dimension and the underlying field size. Furthermore, we show that the family of minimal codes is asymptotically good. Finally, we provide some geometrical constructions of minimal codes as cutting blocking sets.

This work investigates the structure of rank-metric codes in connection with concepts from finite geometry, most notably the q-analogues of projective systems and blocking sets. We also illustrate how to associate a classical Hamming-metric code to a rank-metric one, in such a way that various rank-metric properties naturally translate into the homonymous Hamming-metric notions under this correspondence. The most interesting applications of our results lie in the theory of minimal rank-metric codes, which we introduce and study from several angles. Our main contributions are bounds for the parameters of a minimal rank-metric codes, a general existence result based on a combinatorial argument, and an explicit code construction for some parameter sets that uses the notion of a scattered linear set. Throughout the paper we also show and comment on curious analogies/divergences between the theories of error-correcting codes in the rank and in the Hamming metric.

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We develop three approaches of combinatorial flavour to study the structure of minimal codes, each of which has a particular application. The first approach uses techniques from algebraic combinatorics, describing the supports in a linear code via the Alon-Füredi Theorem and the Combinatorial Nullstellensatz. The second approach combines methods from coding theory and statistics to compare the mean and variance of the nonzero weights in a minimal code. Finally, the third approach regards minimal codes as cutting blocking sets and studies these using the theory of spreads in finite geometry. Applying and combining these approaches with each other, we derive several new bounds and constraints on the parameters of minimal codes. Moreover, we obtain two new constructions of cutting blocking sets of small cardinality in finite projective spaces. In turn, these allow us to give explicit constructions of minimal codes having short length for the given field and dimension.