Related papers: Blocking Sets in the complement of hyperplane arra…

The existence of a primitive element of $GF(q)$ with certain properties is used to prove that all cycles that could theoretically be embedded in $AG(2,q)$ and $PG(2,q)$ can, in fact, be embedded there (i.e. these planes are `pancyclic'). We…

We prove new upper bounds on the smallest size of affine blocking sets, that is, sets of points in a finite affine space that intersect every affine subspace of a fixed codimension. We show an equivalence between affine blocking sets with…

A blocking semioval is a set of points in a projective plane that is both a blocking set (i.e., every line meets the set, but the set contains no line) and a semioval (i.e., there is a unique tangent line at each point). The smallest size…

In this paper, we show that a small minimal k-blocking set in PG(n, q3), q = p^h, h >= 1, p prime, p >=7, intersecting every (n-k)-space in 1 (mod q) points, is linear. As a corollary, this result shows that all small minimal k-blocking…

We describe small dominating sets of the incidence graphs of finite projective planes by establishing a stability result which shows that dominating sets are strongly related to blocking and covering sets. Our main result states that if a…

We classify all finite linear spaces on at most 15 points admitting a blocking set. There are no such spaces on 11 or fewer points, one on 12 points, one on 13 points, two on 14 points, and five on 15 points. The proof makes extensive use…

This paper studies the structure of finite hyperfields $H$, and finds a subtle pattern in their addition operation. Consider the class $\mathcal{H}$ of all hyperfields with a given multiplicative group on $H^\times = H - \{0\}$ and given…

An affine vector space partition of $\operatorname{AG}(n,q)$ is a set of proper affine subspaces that partitions the set of points. Here we determine minimum sizes and enumerate equivalence classes of affine vector space partitions for…

We improve on the lower bound of the maximum number of planes in $\operatorname{PG}(8,q)\cong\F_q^{9}$ pairwise intersecting in at most a point. In terms of constant dimension codes this leads to $A_q(9,4;3)\ge q^{12}+…

In recent years, many useful applications of the polynomial method have emerged in finite geometry. Indeed, algebraic curves, especially those defined by R\'edei-type polynomials, are powerful in studying blocking sets. In this paper, we…

This work investigates the structure of rank-metric codes in connection with concepts from finite geometry, most notably the $q$-analogues of projective systems and blocking sets. We also illustrate how to associate a classical…

A topological hyperplane is a subspace of R^n (or a homeomorph of it) that is topologically equivalent to an ordinary straight hyperplane. An arrangement of topological hyperplanes in R^n is a finite set H such that k topological…

A $\varrho$-saturating set of $\text{PG}(N,q)$ is a point set $\mathcal{S}$ such that any point of $\text{PG}(N,q)$ lies in a subspace of dimension at most $\varrho$ spanned by points of $\mathcal{S}$. It is generally known that a…

Strong blocking sets and their counterparts, minimal codes, attracted lots of attention in the last years. Combining the concatenating construction of codes with a geometric insight into the minimality condition, we explicitly provide…

In this paper we prove that a set of points $B$ of PG(n,2) is a minimal blocking set if and only if $<B>=PG(d,2)$ with $d$ odd and $B$ is a set of $d+2$ points of $PG(d,2)$ no $d+1$ of them in the same hyperplane. As a corollary to the…

We consider set covering problems where the underlying set system satisfies a particular replacement property w.r.t. a given partial order on the elements: Whenever a set is in the set system then a set stemming from it via the replacement…

In this note we will provide proofs for the various statements that have been made in the literature about blocking sets of index three. Our aim is to clarify what is known about the characterization of these sets. Specifically, we provide…

In this paper we give some basic results on blocking sets on minimum size for a finite chain geometry.

In this article, we analyse maximal sets of $k$-spaces, in PG(n,q) and AG(n,q), $n>2k+t+2$, that pairwise meet in at least a $t$-space. It is known that for both PG(n,q) and AG(n,q), the largest example is a $t$-pencil, i.e. the set of all…

Let $T_n(q)$ be the ring of lower triangular matrices of order $n \geq 2$ with entries from the finite field $F(q)$ of order $q \geq 2$ and let ${^2T_n(q)}$ denote its free left module. For $n=2,3$ it is shown that the projective line over…