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39 votes
2 answers
1k views

How close can one get to the missing finite projective planes?

This question can be interpreted as an instance of the Zarankiewicz problem. Suppose we have an $n\times n$ matrix with entries in $\{0,1\}$ with no $\begin{pmatrix}1 & 1\\ 1& 1\end{pmatrix} $ ...
Gjergji Zaimi's user avatar
41 votes
2 answers
5k views

Projective Plane of Order 12

I asked this question on the new Theoretical Computer Science "overflow" site, and commenters suggested I ask it here. That question is here, and it contains additional links, which I doubt I can ...
Aaron Sterling's user avatar
15 votes
1 answer
417 views

What is the smallest cardinality of a self-linked set in a finite cyclic group?

A subset $A$ of a group $G$ is defined to be self-linked if $A\cap gA\ne\emptyset$ for all $g\in G$. This happens if and only if $AA^{-1}=G$. For a finite group $G$ denote by $sl(G)$ the smallest ...
Taras Banakh's user avatar
11 votes
2 answers
792 views

Blocking sets in three dimensional finite affine spaces

What is the smallest possible size of a set of points in $\mathbb{F}_q^3$ which intersects (blocks) every line? Clearly the union of three affine hyperplanes that intersect in a singleton, say $x = 0,...
Anurag's user avatar
  • 1,197
10 votes
1 answer
561 views

How many rich directions does a set in $\mathbb F_p^2$ determine?

$\newcommand{\F}{\mathbb F}$ A subset $P$ of the affine plane $\F_p^2$ is said to determine a direction if there is a line in this direction containing at least two points of $P$. A set of size $|P|&...
Seva's user avatar
  • 23k
5 votes
1 answer
460 views

$(n-2)$-blocking sets in $AG(n,2)$

Let's define $k$-blocking set in affine space $AG(n,q)$ a set that meets every coset (translate of subspace) of dimension $k$. I have seen a lot work related to minimal $(n-1)$-blockings set. ...
Ashot's user avatar
  • 337
4 votes
0 answers
192 views

Forcing scalar products to avoid prescribed values

Let $p$ be a prime, and $n\ge 1$ an integer number. Suppose that the (not necessarily distinct) vectors $v_1,\dotsc,v_N \in{\mathbb F}_p^n$ satisfy the following condition: \begin{gather} \text{For ...
Seva's user avatar
  • 23k
3 votes
1 answer
164 views

A system of linear equations related to the geometry of a finite plane

Let $\mathcal L$ denote the set of all lines in $\mathbb F_p^2$ parallel to one of the lines $$ X:=\{(x,0)\colon x\in\mathbb F_p \}, \ Y:=\{(0,y)\colon y\in\mathbb F_p \}, \ Z:=\{(z,z)\...
Seva's user avatar
  • 23k
2 votes
0 answers
337 views

Enumerating certain types of permutation polynomials

Given a prime power $q$, I would like to enumerate (preferably up to isomorphism*) all the permutation polynomials $f(x)$ on $K = GF(q^3)$ satisfying the following conditions: $f(ax) = af(x)$ for all ...
Anurag's user avatar
  • 1,197