An elementary introduction to error correcting codes

1. Port Moresby, UPNG November 29, 2013 An elementary introduction to error correcting codes Michel Waldschmidt Université P. et M. Curie - Paris VI http://www.math.jussieu.fr/~miw/

2. Error correcting codes play an important role in modern technology, especially in transmission of data and communications. This lecture is a brief introduction to coding theory, involving games with cards, hats, tossing coins. An example is the following one. Given 16 playing cards, if you select one of them, then with 4 questions I can deduce from your answers of yes/no type which card you chose. With one more question I shall detect if one of your answer is not compatible with the others, but I shall not be able to correct it. The earliest error correcting code, due to Richard Hamming (1950), shows that 7 questions suffice (and this is optimal).

3. Mathematical aspects of Coding Theory in France: The main teams in the domain are gathered in the group C2 ''Coding Theory and Cryptography'' , which belongs to a more general group (GDR) ''Mathematical Informatics''. http://www.math.jussieu.fr/~miw/

4. http://www.gdr-im.fr/ GDR IMGroupe de Recherche Informatique Mathématique • The GDR ''Mathematical Informatics'' gathers all the French teams which work on computer science problems with mathematical methods.

5. error correcting codes and data transmission • Transmissions by satellites • CD’s & DVD’s • Cellular phones

6. Mariner 2 (1971) and 9 (1972) Voyager 1 and 2 (1977) Olympus Month on Mars planet Journey: Cape Canaveral, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. The North polar cap of Mars

7. Mariner spacecraft 9 (1979) Black and white photographs of Mars Voyager (1979-81) Jupiter Saturn

8. NASA's Pathfinder mission on Mars (1997) with sojourner rover • 1998: lost of control of Soho satellite recovered thanks to double correction by turbo code. The power of the radio transmitters on these crafts is only a few watts, yet this information is reliably transmitted across hundreds of millions of miles without being completely swamped by noise.

9. A CD of high quality may have more than 500 000 errors! • After processing the signals in the CD player, these errors do not lead to any disturbing noise. • Without error-correcting codes, there would be no CD.

10. 1 second of audio signal = 1 411 200 bits • 1980’s, agreement between Sony and Philips: norm for storage of data on audio CD’s. • 44 100 times per second, 16 bits in each of the two stereo channels

11. Finite fields and coding theory • Solving algebraic equations with radicals: Finite fields theory Evariste Galois(1811-1832) • Construction of regular polygons with rule and compass • Group theory

12. Codes and Mathematics • Algebra (discrete mathematics finite fields, linear algebra,…) • Geometry • Probability and statistics

13. Codes and Geometry • 1949: Marcel Golay (specialist of radars): produced two remarkably efficient codes. • Eruptions on Io (Jupiter’s volcanic moon) • 1963 John Leech uses Golay’s ideas for sphere packing in dimension 24 - classification of finite simple groups • 1971: no other perfect code than the two found by Golay.

14. Sphere Packing • While Shannon and Hamming were working on information transmission in the States, John Leech invented similar codes while working on Group Theory at Cambridge. This research included work on the sphere packing problem and culminated in the remarkable, 24-dimensional Leech lattice, the study of which was a key element in the programme to understand and classify finite symmetry groups.

15. Sphere packing The kissing number is 12

16. Sphere Packing • Kepler Problem: maximal density of • a packing of identical sphères : p / Ö 18= 0.740 480 49… Conjectured in 1611. Proved in 1999 by Thomas Hales. • Connections with crystallography.

17. Some useful codes • 1955: Convolutional codes. • 1959: Bose Chaudhuri Hocquenghem codes (BCH codes). • 1960: Reed Solomon codes. • 1970: Goppa codes. • 1981: Algebraic geometry codes.

18. Current trends In the past two years the goal of finding explicit codes which reach the limits predicted by Shannon's original work has been achieved. The constructions require techniques from a surprisingly wide range of pure mathematics: linear algebra, the theory of fields and algebraic geometry all play a vital role. Not only has coding theory helped to solve problems of vital importance in the world outside mathematics, it has enriched other branches of mathematics, with new problems as well as new solutions.

19. Directions of research • Theoretical questions of existence of specific codes • connection with cryptography • lattices and combinatoric designs • algebraic geometry over finite fields • equations over finite fields

20. http://smf.emath.fr/ Available in English (and Farsi) Explosion of MathematicsSociété Mathématique de France

22. http://www.ias.ac.in/resonance/ Error Correcting Codesby Priti Shankar • How Numbers Protect Themselves • The Hamming Codes Volume 2 Number 1 • Reed Solomon Codes Volume 2 Number 3

23. The Hat Problem

24. The Hat Problem • Three people are in a room, each has a hat on his head, the colour of which is black or white. Hat colours are chosen randomly. Everybody sees the colour of the hat of everyone else, but not on one’s own. People do not communicate with each other. • Everyone tries to guess (by writing on a piece of paper) the colour of their hat. They may write: Black/White/Abstention.

25. Rules of the game • The people in the room win together or lose together as a team. • The team wins if at least one of the three persons do not abstain, and everyone who did not abstain guessed the colour of their hat correctly. • What could be the strategy of the team to get the highest probability of winning?

26. Strategy • A weak strategy: anyone guesses randomly. • Probability of winning: 1/23 =1/8. • Slightly better strategy: they agree that two of them abstain and the other guesses randomly. • Probability of winning: 1/2. • Is it possible to do better?

27. Information is the key • Hint: Improve the odds by using the available information: everybody sees the colour of the hat on everyone’s head except on one’s own head.

28. Solution of the Hat Problem • Better strategy: anyone who sees two different colours abstains. Anyone who sees the same colour twice guesses that one’s hat has the other colour.

29. The two people with white hats see one white hat and one black hat, so they abstain. The one with a black hat sees two white hats, so he writes black. The team wins!

30. The two people with black hats see one white hat and one black hat, so they abstain. The one with a white hat sees two black hats, so he writes white. The team wins!

31. Everybody sees two white hats, and therefore writes black on the paper. The team looses!

32. Everybody sees two black hats, and therefore writes white on the paper. The team looses!

33. Winning team: two white or two black

34. Loosing team: three white or three black Probability of winning: 3/4.

35. Playing cards: easy game

36. I know which card you selected • Among a collection of playing cards, you select one without telling me which one it is. • I ask you some questions and you answer yes or no. • Then I am able to tell you which card you selected.

37. 2 cards • You select one of these two cards • I ask you one question and you answer yes or no. • I am able to tell you which card you selected.

38. 2 cards: one question suffices • Question: is it this one?

39. 4 cards

40. First question: is it one of these two?

41. Second question: is it one of these two ?

42. 4 cards: 2 questions suffice Y Y Y N N Y N N

43. 8 Cards

44. First question: is it one of these?

45. Second question: is it one of these?

46. Third question: is it one of these?

47. 8 Cards: 3 questions YYY YYN YNY YNN NYY NYN NNY NNN

48. Yes / No • 0 / 1 • Yin — / Yang - - • True / False • White / Black • + / - • Head / Tails (tossing or flipping a coin)

49. 8 Cards: 3 questions YYY YYN YNY YNN NYY NYN NNY NNN Replace Y by 0 and N by 1

50. 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 2 0 1 1 3 1 0 0 4 1 0 1 5 1 1 0 6 1 1 1 7 3 questions, 8 solutions