On the non-minimality of the largest weight codewords in the binary Reed-Muller codes

Abstract

The study of minimal codewords in linear codes was motivated by Massey who described how minimal codewords of a linear code define access structures for secret sharing schemes. As a consequence of his article, Borissov, Manev, and Nikova initiated the study of minimal codewords in the binary Reed-Muller codes. They counted the number of non-minimal codewords of weight 2d in the binary Reed-Muller codes RM(r, in), and also gave results on the non-minimality of codewords of large weight in the binary Reed-Muller codes RM(r, in). The results of Borissov, Manev, and Nikova regarding the counting of the number of non-minimal codewords of small weight in RM(r,m) were improved by Schillewaert, Storme, and Thas who counted the number of non-minimal codewords of weight smaller than 3d in RM(r,m). This article now presents new results on the non-minimality of large weight codewords in RM(r, m)