New extremal Type II $\mathbb{Z}_4$-codes of length 64 by the doubling method

Abstract: Extremal Type II $\mathbb{Z}_4$-codes are a class of self-dual $\mathbb{Z}_4$-codes with Euclidean weights divisible by eight and the largest possible minimum Euclidean weight for a given length. A small number of such codes is known for lengths greater than or equal to $48.$ The doubling method is a method for constructing Type II $\mathbb{Z}_4$-codes from a given Type II $\mathbb{Z}_4$-code. Based on the doubling method, in this paper we develop a method to construct new extremal Type II $\mathbb{Z}_4$-codes starting from an extremal Type II $\mathbb{Z}_4$-code of type $4^k$ with an extremal residue code and length $48, 56$ or $64$. Using this method, we construct three new extremal Type II $\mathbb{Z}_4$-codes of length $64$ and type $4^{31}2^2$. Extremal Type II $\mathbb{Z}_4$-codes of length $64$ of this type were not known before. Moreover, the residue codes of the constructed extremal $\mathbb{Z}_4$-codes are new best known $[64,31]$ binary codes and the supports of the minimum weight codewords of the residue code and the torsion code of one of these codes form self-orthogonal $1$-designs.