Duality and LP Bounds for Codes with Locality

Abstract: We initiate the study of the duality theory of locally recoverable codes, with a focus on the applications. We characterize the locality of a code in terms of the dual code, and introduce a class of invariants that refine the classical weight distribution. In this context, we establish a duality theorem analogous to (but very different from) a MacWilliams identity. As an application of our results, we obtain two new bounds for the parameters of a locally recoverable code, including an LP bound that improves on the best available bounds in several instances.