Lower Bound on the Minimum Distance of Single-Generator Quasi-Twisted Codes

Abstract

We recall a classic lower bound on the minimum Hamming distance of constacyclic codes over finite fields, analogous to the well-known BCH bound for cyclic codes. This BCH-like bound serves as a foundation for proposing some minimum-distance lower bounds for single-generator quasi-twisted (QT) codes. Associating each QT code with a constacyclic code over an extension field, we obtain the first bound. This is the QT analogue to a result in the literature for quasi-cyclic codes. We point out some weaknesses in this bound and propose a novel bound that takes into account the Chinese remainder theorem approach to QT codes as well as the BCH bound of constacyclic codes. This proposed bound, in contrast to previous bounds in the literature, does not presuppose a specific form of code generator and does not require calculations in any extension field. We illustrate that our bound meets the one in the literature when the code generator adheres to the specific form assumed in that study. Various numerical examples enable us to compare and discuss these bounds.