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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) …

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{Fo …

Let $p$ be a fixed prime, and suppose that $S$ is a subset of the affine plane $\mathbb F_p^2$. If $|S|\le p+1$, then by the pigeonhole principle, through any given point $s\in S$ there is a line $L=L …

This is the "real-life" (but slightly more technical) version of a question I have asked recently. For a prime $p>10$, let $\mathcal L_X$, $\mathcal L_Y$, and $\mathcal L_Z$ denote the pencils of al …

Recall that a doubly-stochastic matrix is a square matrix with non-negative elements such the sum of the elements in every row, as well as in every column, is $1$. The set of doubly-stochastic matrice …

$\newcommand{\F}{{\mathbb F}}$ Let $q$ be an odd prime power. A blocking set in the affine plane $\F_q^2$ is a set blocking (meeting) every line. A union of two non-parallel lines is a blocking set …

$\newcommand{\F}{\mathbb F}$ 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|> …

This is, essentially, a geometrically rendered version of the question I asked a week ago, with the emphases slightly shifted; it seems more natural and appealing (to me, at least) in this form. Let …

For non-negative integer $d\le n$ and $k\le 2^n$, how many affine subspaces of co-dimension $d$ are needed to cover all, but exactly $k$ elements of the vector space ${\mathbb F}_2^n$, and what are th …

A square in $\mathbb F_2^n\oplus\mathbb F_2^n$ is a quadruple of the form $$ (u,v)+\{(0,0),(0,d),(d,0),(d,d)\},\quad u,v,d\in\mathbb F_2^n,\ d\ne 0. $$ A set $A\subset\mathbb F_2^n\oplus\mathbb F_2 …

The following may be well-known $-$ but not known to me: What is the smallest possible size of a set in ${\mathbb F}_2^n$ that blocks every $2$-flat? Here "blocks" means "have a non-empty inte …