Heden's bound on maximal partial spreads (Q1114927)

Let \({\mathcal S}\) be a maximal partial spread in the projective geometry PG(3,q). Then \(\delta:=q^ 2+1-| {\mathcal S}|\) is called the deficiency of \({\mathcal S}\). By a coding theory proof \textit{O. Heden} gave a lower bound for \(\delta\) [Discrete Math. 62, 277-293 (1986; Zbl 0606.51008)]. In the paper under review a geometric proof for this bound is given and an improvement that states \(\delta \geq \min (1+\sqrt{3}q,\sqrt{pq}-p+2)\) in the case \(q=p^{2m+1}\).