The spectral relation between irreducible cyclic codes and generalized Paley graphs

Abstract

Let $p$ be a prime and $\mathbb{F}_q/\mathbb{F}_r$ a finite field extension with $q=p^m$ and $r=p^s$. For any $k\mid q-1$, we consider $r$-ary irreducible cyclic codes (ICC) of the form $C(k,q/r) = \{(Tr_{q/r}(γω^{ik})_{i=0}^{n-1})\}_{γ\in \mathbb{F}_r}$, with $ω$ a primitive element of $\mathbb{F}_q$ and $ n= \tfrac{q-1}{k}$, and generalized Paley (GP) graphs $Γ(k,q) = Cay(\mathbb{F}_q, \{ x^k : x \in \mathbb{F}_q^* \})$. We show that there is a simple closed formula relating the weight distribution of $C(k,q/r)$ with the spectrum of $Γ(k_r,q)$, where $k_r=\gcd(k, \frac{q-1}{r-1})$. Then, we give $Spec(Γ(k,q))$ explicitly for those graphs associated with irreducible 2-weight cyclic codes in the semiprimitive and exceptional cases. Finally, we give the weight enumerators of irreducible cyclic codes associated with Hamming GP-graphs.