A class of three-weight linear codes over finite fields of odd characteristic

Applied in communication, data storage system, secret sharing schemes, authentication codes and association schemes, linear codes attract much attention. In this paper, a class of three-weight linear codes is obtained by the defining sets over finite fields of odd characteristic. The parameters and weight distributions of linear codes are determined by the additive characters, multiplicative characters and Gauss sums. Further, most of linear codes obtained are minimal, which can be used to construct secret sharing schemes.