Planar arcs

Let $p$ denote the characteristic of ${\mathbb F}_q$, the finite field with $q$ elements. We prove that if $q$ is odd then an arc of size $q+2-t$ in the projective plane over ${\mathbb F}_q$, which is not contained in a conic, is contained in the intersection of two curves, which do not share a common component, and have degree at most $t+p^{\lfloor \log_p t \rfloor}$, provided a certain technical condition on $t$ is satisfied. This implies that if $q$ is odd then an arc of size at least $q-\sqrt{q}+\sqrt{q}/p+3$ is contained in a conic if $q$ is square and an arc of size at least $q-\sqrt{q}+\frac{7}{2}$ is contained in a conic if $q$ is prime. This is of particular interest in the case that $q$ is an odd square, since then there are examples of arcs, not contained in a conic, of size $q-\sqrt{q}+1$, and it has long been conjectured that if $q \neq 9$ is an odd square then any larger arc is contained in a conic. These bounds improve on previously known bounds when $q$ is an odd square and for primes less than $1783$. The previously known bounds, obtained by Segre \cite{Segre1967}, Hirschfeld and Korchm\'aros \cite{HK1996} \cite{HK1998}, and Voloch \cite{Voloch1990b} \cite{Voloch1991}, rely on results on the number of points on algebraic curves over finite fields, in particular the Hasse-Weil theorem and the St\"ohr-Voloch theorem, and are based on Segre's idea to associate an algebraic curve in the dual plane containing the tangents to an arc. In this paper we do not rely on such theorems, but use a new approach starting from a scaled coordinate-free version of Segre's lemma of tangents. Arcs in the projective plane over ${\mathbb F}_q$ of size $q$ and $q+1$, $q$ odd, were classified by Segre \cite{Segre1955b} in 1955. In this article, we complete the classification of arcs of size $q-1$ and $q-2$.