Paper 4, Section II, E

Numbers and Sets | Part IA, 2018

For n∈Nn \in \mathbb{N} let Qn={0,1}nQ_{n}=\{0,1\}^{n} denote the set of all 0−10-1 sequences of length nn. We define the distance d(x,y)d(x, y) between two elements xx and yy of QnQ_{n} to be the number of coordinates in which they differ. Show that d(x,z)⩽d(x,y)+d(y,z)d(x, z) \leqslant d(x, y)+d(y, z) for all x,y,z∈Qnx, y, z \in Q_{n}.

For x∈Qnx \in Q_{n} and 1⩽j⩽n1 \leqslant j \leqslant n let B(x,j)={y∈Qn:d(y,x)⩽j}B(x, j)=\left\{y \in Q_{n}: d(y, x) \leqslant j\right\}. Show that ∣B(x,j)∣=∑i=0j(ni)|B(x, j)|=\sum_{i=0}^{j}\left(\begin{array}{c}n \\ i\end{array}\right).

A subset CC of QnQ_{n} is called a kk-code if d(x,y)⩾2k+1d(x, y) \geqslant 2 k+1 for all x,y∈Cx, y \in C with x≠yx \neq y. Let M(n,k)M(n, k) be the maximum possible value of ∣C∣|C| for a kk-code CC in QnQ_{n}. Show that

2n(∑i=02k(ni))−1⩽M(n,k)⩽2n(∑i=0k(ni))−12^{n}\left(\sum_{i=0}^{2 k}\left(\begin{array}{c} n \\ i \end{array}\right)\right)^{-1} \leqslant M(n, k) \leqslant 2^{n}\left(\sum_{i=0}^{k}\left(\begin{array}{l} n \\ i \end{array}\right)\right)^{-1}

Find M(4,1)M(4,1), carefully justifying your answer.

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