Decomposable subspaces, linear sections of Grassmann varieties, and higher weights of Grassmann codes

We consider the question of determining the maximum number of points on sections of Grassmannians over finite fields by linear subvarieties of the Plücker projective space of a fixed codimension. This corresponds to a known open problem of determining the complete weight hierarchy of linear error correcting codes associated to Grassmann varieties. We recover most of the known results as well as prove some new results. A basic tool used is a characterization of decomposable subspaces of exterior powers, that is, subspaces in which every nonzero element is decomposable. Also, we use a generalization of the Griesmer–Wei bound that is proved here for arbitrary linear codes.