Exact Cardinality And Nonredundant Parametrization Of Character-Polynomial Codes

Abstract

Character-polynomial codes are constructed by evaluating finite field polynomials and mapping the results to complex roots of unity through additive characters. This paper shows that, over extension fields, the original polynomial family may contain redundancies: distinct polynomials can generate the same codeword. We identify the source of this non-injectivity through the trace map and cyclotomic cosets, determine the exact code cardinality, and construct a refined polynomial family that parametrizes the code without redundancy. These results give corrected parameters for CP codes and clarify their algebraic structure.