Extensions of generalized product caps (Q1431618)

Let \(\text{PG}(n, q)\) be the projective space of dimension \(n\) over the finite field \(\mathbb{F}_q\). A \(k\)-cap \(K\) in \(\text{PG}(n, q)\) is a set of \(k\) points, no three of which are collinear. Let \(m_2(n, q)\) be the maximum value of \(k\) for which there exists a \(k\)-cap in \(\text{PG}(n, q)\) and \(m^{\text{aff}}_2(n, q)\) be the corresponding value in \(\text{AG}(n, q)\). The following results are known: \(m_2(n, 2)= m^{\text{aff}}_2(n, 2)= 2^n\), \(m_2(2, q)= m^{\text{aff}}_2(2, q)= q +1\), \(q> 2\), odd, \(m_2(2, q)= m^{\text{aff}}_2(2, q)= q+ 2\), \(q> 2\) even, and \(m_2(3, q)= q^2+1\), \(m^{\text{aff}}_2(3, q)= q^2\), \(q> 2\). Besides of these general results are known only the following cases: \(m_2(4, 3)= m^{\text{aff}}_2(4,3)= 20\), \(m_2(5, 3)= 56\), \(m^{\text{aff}}_2(5, 3)= 45\) and \(m_2(4, 4)= 41\). The author of the present article gives some variants of a new construction for caps and obtains improved lower bounds on some values of \(m_2(n, 3)\). The first examples of improvements are a 1216-cap in \(\text{PG}(9, 3)\) and a 6464-cap in \(\text{PG}(11, 3)\). As an application of these construction, the author obtains several caps in ternary affine spaces of larger dimension, which lead to better asymptotics than the caps constructed previously by Calderbank and Fishburn.