Critical pairs for the Product Singleton Bound

Abstract: We characterize Product-MDS pairs of linear codes, i.e.\ pairs of codes $C,D$ whose product under coordinatewise multiplication has maximum possible minimum distance as a function of the code length and the dimensions $\dim C, \dim D$. We prove in particular, for $C=D$, that if the square of the code $C$ has minimum distance at least $2$, and $(C,C)$ is a Product-MDS pair, then either $C$ is a generalized Reed-Solomon code, or $C$ is a direct sum of self-dual codes. In passing we establish coding-theory analogues of classical theorems of additive combinatorics.