Related papers: On sets without tangents and exterior sets of a co…

All sets of lines providing a partition of the set of internal points to a conic C in PG(2,q), q odd, are determined. There exist only three such linesets up to projectivities, namely the set of all nontangent lines to C through an external…

An untouchable set in a projective plane is a set of points such that no line of the plane meets the set in exactly one point. Recently, H\'eger and Nagy (Avoiding Secants of Given Size in Finite Projective Planes, J. Combin. Des.…

We consider a non-degenerate conic in $\PG(2,q^2)$, $q$ odd, that is tangent to $\ell_\infty$ and look at its structure in the Bruck-Bose representation in $\PG(4,q)$. We determine which combinatorial properties of this set of points in…

We describe a new construction of a subset of P^4 with no four points on a plane over any finite field of order q in which 3 is not a square. This set has size 2q + 1, is maximal with respect to inclusion, and is the largest known such set.

Let A be a pre-defined set of rational numbers. We say a set of natural numbers S is an A-quotient-free set if no ratio of two elements in S belongs to A. We find the maximal asymptotic density and the maximal upper asymptotic density of…

We prove that, for $q$ odd, a set of $q+2$ points in the projective plane over the field with $q$ elements has at least $2q-c$ odd secants, where $c$ is a constant and an odd secant is a line incident with an odd number of points of the…

A $4$-general set in ${\rm PG}(n,q)$ is a set of points of ${\rm PG}(n,q)$ spanning the whole ${\rm PG}(n,q)$ and such that no four of them are on a plane. Such a pointset is said to be complete if it is not contained in a larger…

A $2$-semiarc is a pointset ${\mathcal S}_k$ with the property that the number of tangent lines to ${\mathcal S}_k$ at each of its points is two. Using some theoretical results and computer aided search, the complete classification of…

We study tangent sets of strictly self-affine sets in the plane. If a set in this class satisfies the strong separation condition and projects to a line segment for sufficiently many directions, then for each generic point there exists a…

A $t$-semiarc is a pointset ${\cal S}_t$ with the property that the number of tangent lines to ${\cal S}_t$ at each of its points is $t$. We show that if a small $t$-semiarc ${\cal S}_t$ in $\mathrm{PG}(2,q)$ has a large collinear subset…

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…

Consider two symmetric $3 \times 3$ matrices $A$ and $B$ with entries in $GF(q)$, for $q=p^n$, $p$ an odd prime. The zero sets of $v^T Av$ and $v^T Bv$ can be viewed as (possibly degenerate) conics in the finite projective coordinate plane…

We prove that a non-empty set L of at most q^5+q^4+q^3+q^2+q+1 lines of PG(n, q) with the properties that (1) every point of PG(n,q) is incident with either 0 or q+1 elements of L, (2) every plane plane of PG(n, q) is incident with either…

Let $n$ be a positive integer. Denote by $\mathrm{PG}(n,q)$ the $n$-dimensional projective space over the finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$ of order $q$. A blocking set in $\mathrm{PG}(n,q)$ is a set of points that has non-empty intersection with…

Let $\mathcal{O}$ be a conic in the classical projective plane $PG(2,q)$, where $q$ is an odd prime power. With respect to $\mathcal{O}$, the lines of $PG(2,q)$ are classified as passant, tangent, and secant lines, and the points of…

In this paper, we study the weight distributions of $\mathbb{F}_q$-linear sets in $\mathrm{PG}(1,q^5)$. Our main theorem proves that a linear set $S$ of rank $5$, which is not scattered has the following weight distribution for its points…

Let $\mathbb{F}_q$ be a field with $q$ elements. In this note, we study some generalized arcs, that is, sets of $\mathbb{F}_q$-points in the projective plane $\mathbb{P}^2(\mathbb{F}_q)$ such that no six of them are on a conic. First, we…

The subject of this paper is the study of small complete arcs in $\mathrm{PG}(2,q)$, for $q$ odd, with at least $(q+1)/2$ points on a conic. We give a short comprehensive proof of the completeness problem left open by Segre in his seminal…

A unital in PG(2,q^2) is a set U of q^3+1 points such that each line meets U in 1 or q+1 points. The well known example is the classical unital consisting of all absolute points of a non-degenerate unitary polarity of PG(2,q^2). Unitals…

In this paper we show that the tangent cone of a conflict set in $R^n$ is a linear affine cone over a conflict set of smaller dimension and has dimension $n-1$. Moreover we give an example where the conflict sets is not normally embedded…