English

On the generalization of $g$-circulant MDS matrices

Information Theory 2026-02-11 v1 math.IT

Abstract

A matrix MM over the finite field Fq \mathbb{F}_q is called \emph{maximum distance separable} (MDS) if all of its square submatrices are non-singular. These MDS matrices are very important in cryptography and coding theory because they provide strong data protection and help spread information efficiently. In this paper, we introduce a new type of matrix called a \emph{consta-gg-circulant matrix}, which extends the idea of gg-circulant matrices. These matrices come from a linear transformation defined by the polynomial h(x)=xmλ+i=0m1hixi h(x) = x^m - \lambda + \sum_{i=0}^{m-1} h_i x^i over Fq \mathbb{F}_q . We find the upper bound of such matrices exist and give conditions to check when they are invertible. This helps us know when they are MDS matrices. If the polynomial xmλ x^m - \lambda factors as xmλ=i=1tfi(x)ei, x^m - \lambda = \prod_{i=1}^{t} f_i(x)^{e_i}, where each fi(x) f_i(x) is irreducible, then the number of invertible consta-gg-circulant matrices is Ni=1t(qdegfi1), N \cdot \prod_{i=1}^{t} \left( q^{\deg f_i} - 1 \right), where rr is the multiplicative order of λ\lambda, and N N is the number of integers k k such that 0k<m1r+1andgcd(1+rk,m)=1. 0 \leq k < \left\lfloor \frac{m - 1}{r} \right\rfloor + 1 \quad \text{and} \quad \gcd(1 + rk, m) = 1. This formula help us to reduce the number of cases to check whether such matrices is MDS. Moreover, we give complete characterization of gg-circulant MDS matrices of order 3 and 4. Additionally, inspired by skew polynomial rings, we construct a new variant of gg-circulant matrix. In the last, we provide some examples related to our findings.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2602.10028,
  title  = {On the generalization of $g$-circulant MDS matrices},
  author = {Atif Ahmad Khan and Shakir Ali and Bhupendra Singh},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.10028},
  year   = {2026}
}