Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2024/ii/paper-3/3k/a/solution

The Reed-Muller code is spanned by the evaluation vectors of the square-free monomials
form a basis: every Boolean function has a unique algebraic normal form, so the monomials remain independent after evaluation on . Thus
Induction using the decomposition , with and , gives the lower bound for every nonzero weight. The monomial attains it, so the minimum distance is

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