Related papers: Minimal complete arcs in PG(2,q), q<= 32

A plane curve $C$ in $\mathbb{P}^2$ defined over $\mathbb{F}_q$ is called plane-filling if $C$ contains every $\mathbb{F}_q$-point of $\mathbb{P}^2$. Homma and Kim, building on the work of Tallini, proved that the minimum degree of a smooth…

The minimum number of distinct eigenvalues, taken over all real symmetric matrices compatible with a given graph $G$, is denoted by $q(G)$. Using other parameters related to $G$, bounds for $q(G)$ are proven and then applied to deduce…

Bicovering arcs in Galois affine planes of odd order are a powerful tool for constructing complete caps in spaces of higher dimensions. In this paper we investigate whether some arcs contained in nodal cubic curves are bicovering. For…

We present a new self-contained proof of the well-known fact that the minimal area of a Voronoi cell in a unit circle packing is equal to $2\sqrt{3}$, and the minimum is achieved only on a perfect hexagon. The proof is short and, in our…

How complex must two finite 2-complexes be to admit a common, but not finite common, covering? We obtain an almost answer: the minimum possible number of triangles in a pseudo-simplicial triangulation of each complex is 3, 4, or 5.

An arc in $\mathbb F_q^2$ is a set $P \subset \mathbb F_q^2$ such that no three points of $P$ are collinear. We use the method of hypergraph containers to prove several counting results for arcs. Let $\mathcal A(q)$ denote the family of all…

A {\em pseudo-arc} in $\mathrm{PG}(3n-1,q)$ is a set of $(n-1)$-spaces such that any three of them span the whole space. A pseudo-arc of size $q^n+1$ is a {\em pseudo-oval}. If a pseudo-oval $\mathcal{O}$ is obtained by applying field…

Let $m_2(n, q), n \geq 3$, be the maximum size of k for which there exists a complete k-cap in PG(n, q). In this paper the known bounds for $m_2(n, q), n \geq 4$, q even and $q \geq 2048$, will be considerably improved.

Let $\mathrm{PG}(k-1,q)$ be the $(k-1)$-dimensional projective space over the finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$. An arc in $\mathrm{PG}(k-1,q)$ is a set of points with the property that any $k$ of them span the entire space. The notion of…

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…

For $q=p^r$ with a prime $p\ge 7$ such that $q \equiv 1$ or $19\pmod {30},$ the desarguesian projective plane $PG(2,q)$ of order $q$ has a unique conjugacy class of projectivity groups isomorphic to the alternating group $A_6$ of degree 6.…

In this paper we have a look at squared squares with small integer sidelengths, where the only restriction is that any two subsquares of the same size are not allowed to share a full border. We prove that there are exactly two such squared…

A small minimal k-blocking set B in PG(n, q), q = pt, p prime, is a set of less than 3(qk + 1)/2 points in PG(n, q), such that every (n - k)-dimensional space contains at least one point of B and such that no proper subset of B satisfies…

An arc is a subset of $\mathbb F_q^2$ which does not contain any collinear triples. Let $A(q,k)$ denote the number of arcs in $\mathbb F_q^2$ with cardinality $k$. This paper is primarily concerned with estimating the size of $A(q,k)$ when…

In this paper we prove new upper bounds for the length of a shortest closed geodesic, denoted $l(M)$, on a complete, non-compact Riemannian surface $M$ of finite area $A$. We will show that $l(M) \leq 4\sqrt{2A}$ on a manifold with one end,…

We are interested in the quantity $\rho$(q, g) defined as the smallest positive integer such that r $\ge$ $\rho$(q, g) implies that any absolutely irreducible smooth projective algebraic curve defined over F q of genus g has a closed point…

The classification of all the minimal 1-saturating sets in PG(v, 2) for 2 <= v <= 5, and the classification of the smallest and of the second smallest minimal 1-saturating sets in PG(6, 2) are presented. These results have been found using…

We show that a square-tiling of a $p\times q$ rectangle, where $p$ and $q$ are relatively prime integers, has at least $\log_2p$ squares. If $q>p$ we construct a square-tiling with less than $q/p+C\log p$ squares of integer size, for some…

In this note we construct a new infinite family of $(q-1)$-regular graphs of girth $8$ and order $2q(q-1)^2$ for all prime powers $q\ge 16$, which are the smallest known so far whenever $q-1$ is not a prime power or a prime power plus one…

In this short note it is shown that every graph of diameter 2 and minimum degree at least 3 contains a cycle of length 4 or 8. This result contributes to the study of the Erd\H{o}s-Gy\'arf\'as Conjecture by confirming it for the class of…