On Euclidean and Hermitian Self-Dual Cyclic Codes over ${\mathbb{F}}_{2^r}$

Cyclic and self-dual codes are important classes of codes in coding theory. Jia, Ling and Xing \cite{Jia} as well as Kai and Zhu \cite{Kai} proved that Euclidean self-dual cyclic codes of length $n$ over ${\mathbb{F}}_q$ exist if and only if $n$ is even and $q=2^r$, where $r$ is any positive integer. For $n$ and $q$ even, there always exists an $[n,\frac{n}{2}]$ self-dual cyclic code with generator polynomial $x^{\frac{n}{2}}+1$ called the \textit{trivial self-dual cyclic code}. In this paper we prove the existence of nontrivial self-dual cyclic codes of length $n=2^{\nu }\cdot \bar{n}$, where $\bar{n}$ is odd, over ${\mathbb{F}}_{2^r}$ in terms of the existence of a nontrivial splitting $(Z, X_0, X_1)$of$$\mathbb{Z}${\bar{n}}$by$\mu{-1}$,where$Z, X_0,X_1$ are unions of $2^r$-cyclotomic cosets mod $\bar{n}\mathrm{.}$ We also express the formula for the number of cyclic self-dual codes over ${\mathbb{F}}_{2^r}$ for each $n$ and $r$ in terms of the number of $2^r$-cyclotomic cosets in $X_0$ (or in $X_1$). We also look at Hermitian self-dual cyclic codes and show properties which are analogous to those of Euclidean self-dual cyclic codes. That is, the existence of nontrivial Hermitian self-dual codes over $$\mathbb{F}${2^{2 \ell}}$basedontheexistenceofanontrivialsplitting$(Z, X_0, X_1)$of$$\mathbb{Z}${\bar{n}}$by$\mu_{-2^\ell}$,where$Z, X_0,X_1$areunionsof$2^{2 \ell}$-cyclotomiccosetsmod$\bar{n}.$ We also determine the lengths at which nontrivial Hermitian self-dual cyclic codes exist and the formula for the number of Hermitian self-dual cyclic codes for each $n$.