Beyond Minimum Distance: The Optimal Leading Coefficient in the High-SNR Error-Probability Expansion for AWGN Spherical Codes

Abstract

Packing-optimal $(M,n)$ spherical codes attain the largest achievable minimum distance and hence the optimal error exponent at high SNR. Among these codebooks held fixed as SNR grows, the smallest leading coefficient, $K_{M,n}^{\mathrm{fix}}$, equals the smallest number of ordered closest pairs. We show that reoptimizing the codebook at every SNR can yield a smaller leading coefficient $K_{M,n}^\ast$. Specifically, we show that the SNR-wise minimum exact maximum-likelihood error probability is $P_e^\ast=B_γ^\ast(K_{M,n}^\ast+o(1))$, while the minimum exact error over packing-optimal codebooks is $P_e^{\mathrm{fix}}=B_γ^\ast(K_{M,n}^{\mathrm{fix}}+o(1))$, where $B_γ^\ast$ is a common factor. We prove that $K_{M,n}^\ast\leq K_{M,n}^{\mathrm{fix}}$. Strict inequality, $K_{M,n}^\ast < K_{M,n}^{\mathrm{fix}}$ therefore gives a smaller exact error at all sufficiently high SNRs, i.e., $P_e^\ast<P_e^{\mathrm{fix}}$. We also characterize $K_{M,n}^\ast$ as the limit of the minimum Gaussian soft-packing energy. An orthoplex-bound construction explains strict inequality: an SNR-dependent perturbation makes one class of limiting closest pairs slightly closer, without changing the optimal exponent or their unit contributions to the constructed family&#39;s leading coefficient, while moving the remaining closest pairs farther apart on a larger but still vanishing scale, causing their contributions to vanish. For $2\leq M\leq n+1$, we prove $K_{M,n}^\ast=K_{M,n}^{\mathrm{fix}}=M(M-1)$. For $M=n+k$, $2\leq k\leq n$, we prove $K_{n+k,n}^{\mathrm{fix}}=4n(k-1)$ and $K_{n+k,n}^\ast\leq 4k(k-1)$. In particular, $K_{n+2,n}^\ast=8<4n=K_{n+2,n}^{\mathrm{fix}}$ for $n\geq3$, so SNR-wise optimization improves the asymptotic error by the factor $n/2$. At $k=n$, both coefficients equal $4n(n-1)$. For $3\leq k\leq n-1$, we conjecture $K_{n+k,n}^\ast=4k(k-1)$.