Two generalizations on the minimum Hamming distance of repeated-root constacyclic codes

Abstract: We study constacyclic codes, of length $np^s$ and $2np^s$, that are generated by the polynomials $(x^n + \gamma)^{\ell}$ and $(x^n - \xi)^i(x^n + \xi)^j$\ respectively, where $x^n + \gamma$, $x^n - \xi$ and $x^n + \xi$ are irreducible over the alphabet $\F_{p^a}$. We generalize the results of [5], [6] and [7] by computing the minimum Hamming distance of these codes. As a particular case, we determine the minimum Hamming distance of cyclic and negacyclic codes, of length $2p^s$, over a finite field of characteristic $p$.