Description
A \([11,6,5]_3\) perfect ternary linear code with connections to various areas of mathematics, e.g., lattices [3] and sporadic simple groups [4]. Adding a parity-check trit to the code yields the \([12,6,6]_3\) extended ternary Golay code. Up to equivalence, the ternary Golay code is unique for its parameters [5]. The dual of the ternary Golay code is a \([11,5,6]_3\) projective two-weight subcode [6; Exam. 19.3.2].
A generator matrix for the ternary Golay code is \begin{align} \left(\begin{array}{ccccccccccc} 1 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 1 & 1 & 1 & 1 & 1 \\ 0 & 1 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 1 & 1 & 2 & 2 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & 1 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 1 & 2 & 1 & 0 & 2 \\ 0 & 0 & 0 & 1 & 0 & 0 & 2 & 1 & 0 & 1 & 2 \\ 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 1 & 0 & 2 & 0 & 1 & 2 & 1 \\ 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 1 & 0 & 2 & 2 & 1 & 1 \end{array}\right)~. \tag*{(1)}\end{align}
The permutation automorphism group of the ternary Golay code is the Mathieu group \(\mathcal{M}_{11}\), a sporadic simple group.
Realizations
Code used in football pools with at least one good bet [7,8]. In fact, the code was originally constructed by Juhani Virtakallio and published in the Finnish football pool magazine Veikkaaja [1,8,9].Proofs of the quantum mechanical Kochen-Specker theorem [10].Notes
The ternary Golay code is a quadratic-residue code [11; Sec. 2.7].Cousins
- \([23, 12, 7]\) Golay code— The ternary Golay code is the ternary counterpart of the binary Golay code.
- \(q\)-ary sharp configuration— The dual \([11,5,6]_3\) code of the ternary Golay code is the length-\(11\) ternary Golay-family sharp configuration in [12; Table 12.1].
- Projective two-weight code— The dual of the ternary Golay code is a projective two-weight subcode [13,14][6; Exam. 19.3.2][15; Table 7.1].
- \(\Lambda_{24}\) Leech lattice— A 12-dimensional complex version of the Leech lattice can be obtained from the ternary Golay code [16,17][3; pg. 200].
- Combinatorial design— The supports of the weight-five codewords of the ternary Golay code form the Steiner system \(S(4,5,11)\) [18,19][3; pg. 89].
- \([12,6,6]_3\) Extended ternary Golay code— Adding a parity-check trit to the ternary Golay code yields the extended ternary Golay code.
- \([[11,1,5]]_3\) qutrit Golay code— The qutrit Golay code is a CSS code constructed from the ternary Golay code.
Primary Hierarchy
Parents
The ternary Golay code is perfect [12; Thm. 12.3.3 and Def. 12.3.4].
The ternary Golay code is a quadratic-residue code over \(\mathbb{F}_3\) with residue set \(Q = \{1, 3, 4, 5, 9\} \) and generator polynomial \(x^5 + x^4 - x^3 + x^2 - 1\) [20; Ex. 3.2.10][4; Ch. 16].
The ternary Golay code and several of its extended, shortened, and punctured versions are LP universally optimal codes [21]. The \([11,6,5]_3\) code is universally optimal but not sharp.
\([11,6,5]_3\) Ternary Golay code
References
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- P. R. J. Östergård, “Construction and Classification of Codes”, Concise Encyclopedia of Coding Theory (Chapman and Hall/CRC, 2021), pp. 61-78 DOI
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- H. Cohn and Y. Zhao, “Energy-Minimizing Error-Correcting Codes”, IEEE Transactions on Information Theory 60, 7442 (2014) arXiv:1212.1913 DOI
Page edit log
- Victor V. Albert (2026-10-13) — most recent
- Victor V. Albert (2026-06-08)
- Vikram Elijah Amin (2023-01-21)
- Victor V. Albert (2022-01-21)
- Victor V. Albert (2022-08-12)
- Shashank Sule (2022-03-02)
Cite as:
“\([11,6,5]_3\) Ternary Golay code”, The Error Correction Zoo (V. V. Albert & P. Faist, eds.), 2026. https://errorcorrectionzoo.org/c/ternary_golay, arXiv:2606.11484