Untouchable sets of size $2q \pm 1$ in $PG(2,q)$

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Dover, Jeremy M.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866916735167234048
author Dover, Jeremy M.
author_facet Dover, Jeremy M.
contents 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, Héger and Nagy (Avoiding Secants of Given Size in Finite Projective Planes, J. Combin. Des. 33:83--93, 2024.) provided a generalization of untouchable sets to $k$-avoiding sets, and addressed the issue of the spectrum of sizes that such sets can attain in finite planes. Specific to the untouchable set case, the authors state as an open question the existence of untouchable sets of size $2q-1$ and $2q+1$. We answer this question in the affirmative for Desarguesian planes of even order, and provide a construction of untouchable sets of size $2q+1$ in $PG(2,q)$ for $q \equiv 3\pmod{4}$.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_08551
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Untouchable sets of size $2q \pm 1$ in $PG(2,q)$
Dover, Jeremy M.
Combinatorics
51E21
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, Héger and Nagy (Avoiding Secants of Given Size in Finite Projective Planes, J. Combin. Des. 33:83--93, 2024.) provided a generalization of untouchable sets to $k$-avoiding sets, and addressed the issue of the spectrum of sizes that such sets can attain in finite planes. Specific to the untouchable set case, the authors state as an open question the existence of untouchable sets of size $2q-1$ and $2q+1$. We answer this question in the affirmative for Desarguesian planes of even order, and provide a construction of untouchable sets of size $2q+1$ in $PG(2,q)$ for $q \equiv 3\pmod{4}$.
title Untouchable sets of size $2q \pm 1$ in $PG(2,q)$
topic Combinatorics
51E21
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.08551