Syndrome classification of code cosets (${\mathbb{F}}_q^N/C\cong {\mathbb{F}}_q^{N-k}$)

For a rank-$(N-k)$ parity-check matrix of a linear code $C$, two words have equal syndromes exactly when their difference lies in $C$. Thus attainable syndromes label cosets bijectively. For a received word $c+e$, its syndrome is that of the error $e$, so minimum-weight representatives provide minimum-distance decoding.

// Target: algebra.bigb

A coset leader is a minimum-Hamming-weight word in a coset of a linear code. It represents a most economical error pattern with the associated syndrome. Several leaders can tie; they need not be unique outside the code's guaranteed correction radius.