Higher weight spectra and Betti numbers of Reed-Muller codes $RM_q(2,2)$

Abstract: We determine the higher weight spectra of $q$-ary Reed-Muller codes $C_q=RM_q(2,2)$ for all prime powers $q$. This is equivalent to finding the usual weight distributions of all extension codes of $C_q$ over every field extension of $F_q$ of finite degree. To obtain our results we will utilize well-known connections between these weights and properties of the Stanley-Reisner rings of a series of matroids associated to each code $C_q$. In the process, we are able to explicitly determine all the graded Betti numbers of matroids associated to $C_q$ and its elongations.