A note on MDS Property of Circulant Matrices

Abstract: In $2014$, Gupta and Ray proved that the circulant involutory matrices over the finite field $\mathbb{F}{2^m}$ can not be maximum distance separable (MDS). This non-existence also extends to circulant orthogonal matrices of order $2^d \times 2^d$ over finite fields of characteristic $2$. These findings inspired many authors to generalize the circulant property for constructing lightweight MDS matrices with practical applications in mind. Recently, in $2022,$ Chatterjee and Laha initiated a study of circulant matrices by considering semi-involutory and semi-orthogonal properties. Expanding on their work, this article delves into circulant matrices possessing these characteristics over the finite field $\mathbb{F}{2^m}.$ Notably, we establish a correlation between the trace of associated diagonal matrices and the MDS property of the matrix. We prove that this correlation holds true for even order semi-orthogonal matrices and semi-involutory matrices of all orders. Additionally, we provide examples that for circulant, semi-orthogonal matrices of odd orders over a finite field with characteristic $2$, the trace of associated diagonal matrices may possess non-zero values.