The Projective General Linear Group $\mathrm{PGL}_2(\mathrm{GF}(2^m))$ and Linear Codes of Length $2^m+1$

Abstract: The projective general linear group $\mathrm{PGL}_2(\mathrm{GF}(2^m))$ acts as a $3$-transitive permutation group on the set of points of the projective line. The first objective of this paper is to prove that all linear codes over $\mathrm{GF}(2^h)$ that are invariant under $\mathrm{PGL}_2(\mathrm{GF}(2^m))$ are trivial codes: the repetition code, the whole space $\mathrm{GF}(2^h)^{2^m+1}$, and their dual codes. As an application of this result, the $2$-ranks of the (0,1)-incidence matrices of all $3$-$(q+1,k,\lambda)$ designs that are invariant under $\mathrm{PGL}_2(\mathrm{GF}(2^m))$ are determined. The second objective is to present two infinite families of cyclic codes over $\mathrm{GF}(2^m)$ such that the set of the supports of all codewords of any fixed nonzero weight is invariant under $\mathrm{PGL}_2(\mathrm{GF}(2^m))$, therefore, the codewords of any nonzero weight support a 3-design. A code from the first family has parameters $[q+1,q-3,4]_q$, where $q=2^m$, and $m\ge 4$ is even. The exact number of the codewords of minimum weight is determined, and the codewords of minimum weight support a 3-$(q+1,4,2)$ design. A code from the second family has parameters $[q+1,4,q-4]_q$, $q=2^m$, $m\ge 4$ even, and the minimum weight codewords support a 3-$(q +1,q-4,(q-4)(q-5)(q-6)/60)$ design, whose complementary 3-$(q +1, 5, 1)$ design is isomorphic to the Witt spherical geometry with these parameters. A lower bound on the dimension of a linear code over $\mathrm{GF}(q)$ that can support a 3-$(q +1,q-4,(q-4)(q-5)(q-6)/60)$ design is proved, and it is shown that the designs supported by the codewords of minimum weight in the codes from the second family of codes meet this bound.