A lower bound on the minimum degree of the plane algebraic curves containing every point in a large point-set $K$ of the Desarguesian plane $PG(2,q)$ is obtained. The case where $K$ is a maximal $(k,n)$-arc is considered to greater extent.
In this paper we construct functional codes from Denniston maximal arcs. For $q=2^{4n+2}$ we obtain linear codes with parameters $[(\sqrt{q}-1)(q+1),5,d]_q$ where $\lim_{q \to +\infty} d=(\sqrt{q}-1)q-3\sqrt{q}$. We also find for $q=16,32$ a number of linear codes which appear to have larger minimum distance with respect to the known codes with same length and dimension.
In 1969 Denniston gave a construction of maximal arcs of degree d in Desarguesian projective planes of even order q, for all d dividing q. In 2002 Mathon gave a construction method generalizing the one of Denniston. We will give a new geometric approach to these maximal arcs. This will allow us to count the number of isomorphism classes of Mathon maximal arcs of degree 8 in PG(2,2^h), h prime.
A combinatorial characterization of resolvable Steiner 2-$(v,k,1)$ designs embeddable as maximal arcs in a projective plane of order $(v-k)/(k-1)$ is proved, and a generalization of a conjecture by Andries Brouwer \cite{Br} is formulated.
Let $m$ be a positive integer, $q$ be a prime power, and $\mathrm{PG}(2,q)$ be the projective plane over the finite field $\mathbb F_q$. Finding complete $m$-arcs in $\mathrm{PG}(2,q)$ of size less than $q$ is a classical problem in finite geometry. In this paper we give a complete answer to this problem when $q$ is relatively large compared with $m$, explicitly constructing the smallest $m$-arcs in the literature so far for any $m\geq 8$. For any fixed $m$, our arcs $\mathcal A_{q,m}$ satisfy $|\mathcal A_{q,m}|-q\rightarrow -\infty$ as $q$ grows. To produce such $m$-arcs, we develop a Galois…
The resolutions and maximal sets of compatible resolutions of all 2-(120,8,1) designs arising frommaximal (120,8)-arcs in the known projective planes of order 16 are computed. It is shown that each of these designs is embeddable in a unique way in a projective plane of order 16.
We show that extended cyclic codes over $\mathbb{F}_q$ with parameters $[q+2,3,q]$, $q=2^m$, determine regular hyperovals. We also show that extended cyclic codes with parameters $[qt-q+t,3,qt-q]$, $1<t<q$, determine (cyclic) Denniston maximal arcs. Similarly, cyclic codes with parameters $[q^2+1,4,q^2-q]$ are equivalent to ovoid codes obtained from elliptic quadrics in $PG(3,q)$. Finally, we give new simple presentations of Denniston maximal arcs in $PG(2,q)$ and elliptic quadrics in $PG(3,q)$.
It is shown that the maximal size of a $2$-arc in the projective Hjelmslev plane over $\mathbb{Z}_{25}$ is $21$, and the $(21,2)$-arc is unique up to isomorphism. Furthermore, all maximal $(20,2)$-arcs in the affine Hjelmslev plane over $\mathbb{Z}_{25}$ are classified up to isomorphism.
In this paper we consider binary linear codes spanned by incidence matrices of Steiner 2-designs associated with maximal arcs in projective planes of even order, and their dual codes. Upper and lower bounds on the 2-rank of the incidence matrices are derived. A lower bound on the minimum distance of the dual codes is proved, and it is shown that the bound is achieved if and only if the related maximal arc contains a hyperoval of the plane. The binary linear codes of length 52 spanned by the incidence matrices of 2-$(52,4,1)$ designs associated with previously known and some newly found maximal…
It is proved that for every $d\ge 2$ such that $d-1$ divides $q-1$, where $q$ is a power of 2, there exists a Denniston maximal arc $A$ of degree $d$ in $\PG(2,q)$, being invariant under a cyclic linear group that fixes one point of $A$ and acts regularly on the set of the remaining points of ${A}$. Two alternative proofs are given, one geometric proof based on Abatangelo-Larato's characterization of Denniston arcs, and a second coding-theoretical proof based on cyclotomy and the link between maximal arcs and two-weight codes.
In 1974, J. Thas constructed a new class of maximal arcs for the Desarguesian plane of order $q^2$. The construction relied upon the existence of a regular spread of tangent lines to an ovoid in $\PG(3,q)$ and, in particular, it does apply to the Suzuki--Tits ovoid. In this paper, we describe an algorithm for obtaining a possible representation of such arcs in $\PG(2,q^2)$.
N. Hamilton and J. A. Thas describe a link between maximal arcs of Mathon type and partial flocks of the quadratic cone. This link is of a rather algebraic nature. In this paper we establish a geometric connection between these two structures. We also define a composition on the flock planes and use this to work out an analogue of the synthetic version of Mathon's Theorem. Finally, we show how it is possible to construct a maximal arc of Mathon type of degree 2d, containing a Denniston arc of degree d provided that there is a solution to a certain given system of trace conditions.
In a recent paper [M], Mathon gives a new construction of maximal arcs which generalizes the construction of Denniston. In relation to this construction, Mathon asks the question of determining the largest degree of a non-Denniston maximal arc arising from his new construction. In this paper, we give a nearly complete answer to this problem. Specifically, we prove that when $m\geq 5$ and $m\neq 9$, the largest $d$ of a non-Denniston maximal arc of degree $2^d$ in PG(2,2^m) generated by a {p,1}-map is $(\floor {m/2} +1)$. This confirms our conjecture in [FLX]. For {p,q}-maps, we prove that if $…
In a former paper the authors counted the number of non-isomorphic Mathon maximal arcs of degree 8 in PG(2,2^h), h not 7 and prime. In this paper we will show that in PG(2,2^7) a special class of Mathon maximal arcs of degree 8 arises which admits a Singer group (i.e. a sharply transitive group) on the 7 conics of these arcs. We will give a detailed description of these arcs, and then count the total number of non-isomorphic Mathon maximal arcs of degree 8. Finally we show that the special arcs found in PG(2,2^7) extend to two infinite families of Mathon arcs of degree 8 in PG(2,2^k), k odd an…
The subject of this paper are partial geometries $pg(s,t,α)$ with parameters $s=d(d'-1), \ t=d'(d-1), \ α=(d-1)(d'-1)$, $d, d' \ge 2$. In all known examples, $q=dd'$ is a power of 2 and the partial geometry arises from a maximal arc of degree $d$ or $d'$ in a projective plane of order $q$ via a known construction due to Thas \cite{Thas73} and Wallis \cite{W}, with a single known exception of a partial geometry $pg(4,6,3)$ found by Mathon \cite{Math} that is not associated with a maximal arc in the projective plane of order 8. A parallel class of lines is a set of pairwise disjoint lines that c…
Using the polynomial method of Dvir \cite{dvir}, we establish optimal estimates for Kakeya sets and Kakeya maximal functions associated to algebraic varieties $W$ over finite fields $F$. For instance, given an $n-1$-dimensional projective variety $W \subset ¶^n(F)$, we establish the Kakeya maximal estimate $$ \| \sup_{γ\ni w} \sum_{v \in γ(F)} |f(v)| \|_{\ell^n(W)} \leq C_{n,W,d} |F|^{(n-1)/n} \|f\|_{\ell^n(F^n)}$$ for all functions $f: F^n \to \R$ and $d \geq 1$, where for each $w \in W$, the supremum is over all irreducible algebraic curves in $F^n$ of degree at most $d$ that pass through $w…
An (n,r)-arc in PG(2,q) is a set of n points such that each line contains at most r of the selected points. It is well-known that (n,r)-arcs in PG(2,q) correspond to projective linear codes. Let m_r(2,q) denote the maximal number n of points for which an (n,r)-arc in PG(2,q) exists. In this paper we obtain improved lower bounds on m_r(2,q) by explicitly constructing (n,r)-arcs. Some of the constructed (n,r)-arcs correspond to linear codes meeting the Griesmer bound. All results are obtained by integer linear programming.
It is known that some good linear codes over a finite ring (R-linear codes) arise from interesting point constellations in certain projective geometries. For example, the expurgated Nordstrom-Robinson code, a nonlinear binary [14,6,6]-code which has higher minimum distance than any linear binary [14,6]-code, can be constructed from a maximal 2-arc in the projective Hjelmslev plane over Z_4.
In this paper, we study KM-arcs in $PG(2, q)$, the Desarguesian projective plane of order $q$. A KM-arc A of type $t$ is a natural generalisation of a hyperoval: it is a set of $q + t$ points in $PG(2, q)$ such that every line of $PG(2,q)$ meets A in $0,2$ or $t$ points. We study a particular class of KM-arcs, namely, elation KM-arcs. These KM-arcs are highly symmetrical and moreover, many of the known examples are elation KM-arcs. We provide an algebraic framework and show that all elation KM-arcs of type $q/4$ in $PG(2,q)$ are translation KM-arcs. Using a result of [2], this concludes the cl…
A complex algebraic variety defined over the reals is maximal when the sum of its Betti numbers for Borel Moore homology with $\zz$ coefficients coincides with the sum of the Betti numbers of its real part. We will show in this paper that toric varieties of dimension 4 are maximal.
In a projective plane over a finite field, complete $(k,n)$-arcs with few characters are rare but interesting objects with several applications to finite geometry and coding theory. Since almost all known examples are large, the construction of small ones, with $k$ close to the order of the plane, is considered a hard problem. A natural candidate to be a small $(k,n)$-arc with few characters is the set $Ω(\mathcal{C})$ of the points of a plane curve $\mathcal{C}$ of degree $n$ (containing no linear components) such that some line meets $\mathcal{C}$ transversally in the plane, i.e. in $n$ pair…
An $(n,r)$-arc in $PG(2,q)$ is a set $B$ of points in $PG(2,q)$ such that each line in $PG(2,q)$ contains at most $r$ elements of $B$ and such that there is at least one line containing exactly $r$ elements of $B$. The value $m_r(2,q)$ denotes the maximal number $n$ of points in the projective geometry $PG(2,q)$ for which an $(n,r)$-arc exists. By explicitly constructing $(n,r)$-arcs using prescribed automorphisms and integer linear programming we obtain some improved lower bounds for $m_r(2,q)$: $m_{10}(2,16)\ge 144$, $m_3(2,25)\ge 39$, $m_{18}(2,25)\ge 418$, $m_9(2,27)\ge 201$, $m_{14}(2,29)…
A \textit{k}-arc in the projective space ${\rm PG}(n,q)$ is a set of $k$ projective points such that no subcollection of $n+1$ points is contained in a hyperplane. In this paper, we construct new $60$-arcs and $110$-arcs in ${\rm PG}(4,q)$ that do not arise from rational or elliptic curves. We introduce computational methods that, when given a set $\mathcal{P}$ of projective points in the projective space of dimension $n$ over an algebraic number field $\mathcal{Q}(ξ)$, determines a complete list of primes $p$ for which the reduction modulo $p$ of $\mathcal{P}$ to the projective space ${\rm PG…
In this paper we investigate the number of minimum weight codewords of some dual Algebraic-Geometric codes associated with the Giulietti-Korchmáros maximal curve, by computing the maximal number of intersections between the Giulietti-Korchmáros curve and lines, plane conics and plane cubics.
In this paper we investigate multi-point Algebraic-Geometric codes associated to the GK maximal curve, starting from a divisor which is invariant under a large automorphism group of the curve. We construct families of codes with large automorphism groups.
A circular arc graph is the intersection graph of a collection of connected arcs on the circle. We solve a Tur'an-type problem for circular arc graphs: for n arcs, if m and M are the minimum and maximum number of arcs that contain a common point, what is the maximum number of edges the circular arc graph can contain? We establish a sharp bound and produce a maximal construction. For a fixed m, this can be used to show that if the circular arc graph has enough edges, there must be a point that is covered by at least M arcs. In the case m=0, we recover results for interval graphs established by …
We show that a set of $n$ algebraic plane curves of constant maximum degree can be cut into $O(n^{3/2}\operatorname{polylog} n)$ Jordan arcs, so that each pair of arcs intersect at most once, i.e., they form a collection of pseudo-segments. This extends a similar (and slightly better) bound for pseudo-circles due to Marcus and Tardos. Our result is based on a technique of Ellenberg, Solymosi and Zahl that transforms arrangements of plane curves into arrangements of space curves, so that lenses (pairs of subarcs of the curves that intersect at least twice) become vertical depth cycles. We then …
The \emph{generating chromatic number} of a group $G$, $\chigen(G)$, is the maximum number of colors $k$ such that there is a monochromatic generating set for each coloring of the elements of $G$ in $k$ colors. If no such maximal $k$ exists, we set $\chigen(G)=\infty$. Equivalently, $\chigen(G)$ is the maximal number $k$ such that there is no cover of $G$ by proper subgroups ($\infty$ if there is no such maximal $k$). We provide characterizations, for arbitrary gruops, in the cases $\chigen(G)=\infty$ and $\chigen(G)=2$. For nilpotent groups (in particular, for abelian ones), all possible chro…