The kernel-block rank profile and a complete classification of $\mathbb{Z}_2\mathbb{Z}_4\mathbb{Z}_8$-linear Hadamard codes

Abstract: The $\mathbb{Z}_2\mathbb{Z}_4\mathbb{Z}_8$-additive codes are subgroups of $$\mathbb{Z}_2<sup>{α_1}\times\mathbb{Z}_4<sup>{α_2}\times\mathbb{Z}_8<sup>{α_3}$$, and a $\mathbb{Z}_2\mathbb{Z}_4\mathbb{Z}_8$-linear Hadamard code is the Gray map image of such a code. A recursive construction of $\mathbb{Z}_2\mathbb{Z}_4\mathbb{Z}_8$-additive Hadamard codes $\mathcal H<sup>{t_1,t_2,t_3}$, with all $α_i\neq0$, $t_1\geq1$, $t_2\geq0$, and $t_3\geq1$, is known, as are the linearity, kernel dimension, and rank of the corresponding codes $H<sup>{t_1,t_2,t_3}$ of length $2^t$, where $t+1=3t_1+2t_2+t_3$. Yet these invariants do not completely classify the family. Two infinite families of pairs of distinct types share the length, rank and kernel dimension, and for classified lengths $2^t$, $3\leq t\leq11$, such pairs were separated only by computer equivalence tests. In this paper, we introduce an equivalence invariant that resolves these cases. The kernel partitions the binary coordinates into blocks, two coordinates lying in the same block when every kernel word takes the same value in both; the \emph{kernel-block rank profile} is the multiset of the dimensions of the linear span punctured on these blocks. Unlike rank and kernel dimension, which are global, this invariant records how much of the span survives on each block. We compute it for the whole family: there are $2<sup>{t_1+t_2+t_3-1}$ blocks, all of size $2<sup>{2t_1+t_2}$, and the profile takes at most two values $t_2+\binom{t_1+2}{2}$ and $t_2+2+\binom{t_1+1}{2}$, whose difference is $t_1-1$; it is constant precisely when $t_1=1$. Hence, the profile recovers $t_1$, and the length and kernel dimension recover $t_2$ and $t_3$. Two codes of the family with the same length are therefore equivalent if and only if their types coincide, and the number of pairwise nonequivalent such codes of length $2^t$ is $\lfloor(t<sup>2+6)/12\rfloor$ for every $t\geq3$.