Blocking sets of size \(q^t + q^{t-1} + 1\) (Q1976323)

A set \(B\) of points in a projective plane \(P\) is called a blocking set, if \(B\) intersects every line of \(P\); in this context, \(B\) is called trivial, if it contains a line of \(P\). Now suppose that \(B\) is a blocking set in the projective plane \(P\) of order \(q\) with \(|B|= q + N\). Then, in general, a line of \(P\) contains at most \(N\) points of \(P\); if such a line exists, \(B\) is called of Rédei type and the line is said to be a Rédei line. Moreover, \(B\) is called minimal, if no proper subset of \(B\) is a blocking set in \(P\). Minimal blocking sets of size less than \(3(q+1)/2\) in a desarguesian plane \(PG(2,q)\) with \(q=p^e, p\) a prime are called small; it is known that these intersect every line in a number of points congruent to \(1\) modulo \(p\). Finally, two blocking sets \(B\) and \(B'\) of \(P\) are called equivalent, if there exixts a collineation of \(P\) mapping one to the other. The authors prove that in the desarguesian plane \(PG(2,q^t)\), \(t > 4\) there are at least three inequivalent blocking sets of size \(q^t + q^{t-1} + 1\); the first one has \(q+1\) Rédei lines, the second one has exactly one Rédei line, and the third one has no Rédei line at all. Let \(T\) denote the trace map of \(GF(q^t)\) over \(GF(q)\). If \((X_0,X_1,X_2)\) are the homogeneous coordinates of a point of \(PG(2,q^t)\), then \(R := \{ (a, T(a), b) \mid a \in GF(q^t)\), \(b\in GF(q)\}\) is a small minimal blocking set in \(PG(2,q^t)\) of size \(q^t + q^{t-1} + 1\) such that \(X_2 = 0\) is a Rédei line; moreover, \(R\) has \(q+1\) Rédei lines. It had been conjectured that whenever \(GF(q)\) is the largest subfield of \(GF(q^t)\) then a small minimal blocking set \(B\) of \(PG(2,q^t)\) has size \(|B|\geq q^t + q^{t-1} + 1\), with equality holding if and only if \(B\) is equivalent to \(R\). So this conjecture has been disproved by the results described above.