Related papers: Blocking Planes by Lines in $\operatorname{PG}(n,q…

In this work complete caps in $PG(N,q)$ of size $O(q^{\frac{N-1}{2}}\log^{300} q)$ are obtained by probabilistic methods. This gives an upper bound asymptotically very close to the trivial lower bound $\sqrt{2}q^{\frac{N-1}{2}}$ and it…

Let $\Pi_q$ be an arbitrary finite projective plane of order $q$. A subset $S$ of its points is called saturating if any point outside $S$ is collinear with a pair of points from $S$. Applying probabilistic tools we improve the upper bound…

We study error-correcting codes in the space $\mathcal{S}_{n,q}$ of length-$n$ multisets over a $q$-ary alphabet, motivated by permutation channels in which ordering is completely lost and errors act solely by deletions of symbols, i.e., by…

Let $\mathcal{L}$ be a pencil of plane curves defined over $\mathbb{F}_q$ with no $\mathbb{F}_q$-points in its base locus. We investigate the number of curves in $\mathcal{L}$ whose $\mathbb{F}_q$-points form a blocking set. When the degree…

A problem that arises in drawings of transportation networks is to minimize the number of crossings between different transportation lines. While this can be done efficiently under specific constraints, not all solutions are visually…

Let $S$ and $D$ each be a set of orthogonal line segments in the plane. A line segment $s\in S$ \emph{stabs} a line segment $s'\in D$ if $s\cap s'\neq\emptyset$. It is known that the problem of stabbing the line segments in $D$ with the…

We consider $q$-ary (linear and nonlinear) block codes with exactly two distances: $d$ and $d+\delta$. Several combinatorial constructions of optimal such codes are given. In the linear (but not necessary projective) case, we prove that…

Let $n,q,t,s,p$ be non-negative integers where $n\geq s$ and $q\geq 1$. For $\mathbf{x}\in A_{q}^{n}\triangleq\{ 0,1,\ldots,q-1 \}^{n}$, let the $t$-insertion $s$-deletion $p$-substitution ball of $\mathbf{x}$, denoted by…

Let $\mathrm{PG}(3, q)$ denote the three-dimensional projective space over the finite field with $q$ elements. A line-spread of $\mathrm{PG}(3, q)$ is a collection $\mathcal{S}$ of mutually skew lines such that every point of…

We study combinatorial parameters of a recently introduced bootstrap percolation problem in finite projective planes. We present sharp results on the size of the minimum percolating sets and the maximal non-percolating sets. Additional…

In this article, a combinatorial characterization of the family of planes of $\PG(3,q)$ which meet a hyperbolic quadric in an irreducible conic, using their intersection properties with the points and lines of $\PG(3,q)$, is given.

We study a variational problem for the perimeter associated with the Grushin plane, called minimal partition problem with trace constraint. This consists in studying how to enclose three prescribed areas in the Grushin plane, using the…

For an arrangement of $n$ pseudolines in the real projective plane let us denote by $t_i$ the number of vertices incident to $i$ lines. We obtain a linear on $t_i$ inequality similar to the Hirzebruch one, but with an elementary proof. We…

Let $S$ be a set of $n$ points in $\mathbb{R}^3$, no three collinear and not all coplanar. If at most $n-k$ are coplanar and $n$ is sufficiently large, the total number of planes determined is at least $1 + k…

We study minimally Terracini finite sets of points in the projective plane and we prove that the sequence of the cardinalities of minimally Terracini sets can have any number of gaps for degree great enough.

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…

The classification of all semiovals and blocking semiovals in $\mathrm{PG}(2,8)$ and in $\mathrm{PG}(2,9)$ of size less than $17$ is determined. Also, some information on the stabilizer groups and the intersection sizes with lines is given.

In this paper we study the following problem: Given $k$ disjoint sets of points, $P_1, \ldots, P_k$ on the plane, find a minimum cardinality set $\mathcal{T}$ of arbitrary rectangles such that each rectangle contains points of just one set…

A covering path for a finite set $P$ of points in the plane is a polygonal path such that every point of $P$ lies on a segment of the path. The vertices of the path need not be at points of $P$. A covering path is plane if its segments do…

Let $S$ be a finite set of points in the plane and let $\mathcal{T}(S)$ be the set of intersection points between pairs of lines passing through any two points in $S$. We characterize all configurations of points $S$ such that iteration of…