In
coding theory
Coding theory is the study of the properties of codes and their respective fitness for specific applications. Codes are used for data compression, cryptography, error detection and correction, data transmission and data storage. Codes are stud ...
, the ternary Golay codes are two closely related
error-correcting code
In computing, telecommunication, information theory, and coding theory, an error correction code, sometimes error correcting code, (ECC) is used for controlling errors in data over unreliable or noisy communication channels. The central idea i ...
s.
The code generally known simply as the ternary Golay code is an
-code, that is, it is a
linear code In coding theory, a linear code is an error-correcting code for which any linear combination of codewords is also a codeword. Linear codes are traditionally partitioned into block codes and convolutional codes, although turbo codes can be seen a ...
over a
ternary
Ternary (from Latin ''ternarius'') or trinary is an adjective meaning "composed of three items". It can refer to:
Mathematics and logic
* Ternary numeral system, a base-3 counting system
** Balanced ternary, a positional numeral system, usef ...
alphabet; the
relative distance of the code is as large as it possibly can be for a ternary code, and hence, the ternary Golay code is a
perfect code.
The extended ternary Golay code is a
2, 6, 6
The comma is a punctuation mark that appears in several variants in different languages. It has the same shape as an apostrophe or single closing quotation mark () in many typefaces, but it differs from them in being placed on the baseline o ...
linear code In coding theory, a linear code is an error-correcting code for which any linear combination of codewords is also a codeword. Linear codes are traditionally partitioned into block codes and convolutional codes, although turbo codes can be seen a ...
obtained by adding a zero-sum
check digit
A check digit is a form of redundancy check used for error detection on identification numbers, such as bank account numbers, which are used in an application where they will at least sometimes be input manually. It is analogous to a binary parity ...
to the
1, 6, 5code.
In finite
group theory
In abstract algebra, group theory studies the algebraic structures known as group (mathematics), groups.
The concept of a group is central to abstract algebra: other well-known algebraic structures, such as ring (mathematics), rings, field ...
, the extended ternary Golay code is sometimes referred to as the ternary Golay code.
Properties
Ternary Golay code
The ternary Golay code consists of 3
6 = 729 codewords.
Its
parity check matrix is
:
Any two different codewords differ in at least 5 positions.
Every ternary word of length 11 has a Hamming distance of at most 2 from exactly one codeword.
The code can also be constructed as the
quadratic residue code of length 11 over the
finite field
In mathematics, a finite field or Galois field (so-named in honor of Évariste Galois) is a field that contains a finite number of elements. As with any field, a finite field is a set on which the operations of multiplication, addition, subt ...
F
3 (''i.e.,'' the Galois Field
GF(3) ).
Used in a
football pool with 11 games, the ternary Golay code corresponds to 729 bets and guarantees exactly one bet with at most 2 wrong outcomes.
The set of codewords with Hamming weight 5 is a 3-(11,5,4)
design
A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design'' ...
.
The
generator matrix given by Golay (1949, Table 1.) is
:
The
automorphism group
In mathematics, the automorphism group of an object ''X'' is the group consisting of automorphisms of ''X'' under composition of morphisms. For example, if ''X'' is a finite-dimensional vector space, then the automorphism group of ''X'' is th ...
of the (original) ternary Golay code is the Mathieu group M11, which is the smallest of the sporadic simple groups.
Extended ternary Golay code
The
complete weight enumerator of the extended ternary Golay code is
:
The
automorphism group
In mathematics, the automorphism group of an object ''X'' is the group consisting of automorphisms of ''X'' under composition of morphisms. For example, if ''X'' is a finite-dimensional vector space, then the automorphism group of ''X'' is th ...
of the extended ternary Golay code is 2.''M''
12, where ''M''
12 is the
Mathieu group M12.
The extended ternary Golay code can be constructed as the span of the rows of a
Hadamard matrix of order 12 over the field F
3.
Consider all codewords of the extended code which have just six nonzero digits. The sets of positions at which these nonzero digits occur form the
Steiner system S(5, 6, 12).
A
generator matrix for the extended ternary Golay code is
:
The corresponding parity check matrix for this generator matrix is
, where
denotes the ''transpose'' of the matrix.
An alternative generator matrix for this code is
:
And its parity check matrix is
.
The three elements of the underlying finite field are represented here by
, rather than by
.
It is also understood that
(''i.e.,'' the additive inverse of 1) and
. Products of these finite field elements are identical to those of the integers. Row and column sums are evaluated modulo 3.
Linear combinations, or ''vector addition'', of the rows of the matrix
produces all possible ''words'' contained in the code. This is referred to as the ''span'' of the rows. The inner product of any two rows of the generator matrix will always sum to zero. These rows, or vectors, are said to be ''orthogonal''.
The matrix product of the generator and parity-check matrices,
, is the
matrix of all zeroes, and by intent.
Indeed, this is an example of the very definition of any parity check matrix with respect to its generator matrix.
History and Applications
The ternary Golay code was published by . It was independently discovered two years earlier by the
Finnish football pool enthusiast
Juhani Virtakallio, who published it in 1947 in issues 27, 28 and 33 of the football
magazine ''
Veikkaaja''.
The ternary Golay code has been shown to be useful for an approach to fault-tolerant
quantum computing
Quantum computing is a type of computation whose operations can harness the phenomena of quantum mechanics, such as superposition, interference, and entanglement. Devices that perform quantum computations are known as quantum computers. Thou ...
known as
magic state distillation.
See also
*
Berlekamp–van Lint–Seidel graph
*
Binary Golay code
In mathematics and electronics engineering, a binary Golay code is a type of linear error-correcting code used in digital communications. The binary Golay code, along with the ternary Golay code, has a particularly deep and interesting connectio ...
References
*
*
Further reading
*
*
*
*
*{{citation
, last = Thompson , first = Thomas M.
, isbn = 0-88385-023-0
, mr = 749038
, publisher = Mathematical Association of America , location = Washington, DC
, series = Carus Mathematical Monographs
, title = From Error Correcting Codes through Sphere Packings to Simple Groups
, volume = 21
, year = 1983
Coding theory
Finite fields
ja:3元ゴレイ符号