A characteristic property of geometric \(t\)-spreads in finite projective spaces (Q1178031)

A \(t\)-spread \(S\) of \(PG((t+1)r-1,q)\) is a spread whose elements are \(t\)- dimensional subspaces. It is called geometric when for any two distinct \(S_ 1,S_ 2\in S\), the elements of \(S\) in the subspace spanned by \(S_ 1\cup S_ 2\) form a \(t\)-spread of that subspace. Set \(P=PG((t+1)r-1+k,q)\) and suppose \(t\geq 1\), \(r\geq 2\), \(k\geq 0\). The main result is that if \(S\) is a collection of \(t\)-dimensional subspaces of \(P\) such that every \((tr+k)\)-dimensional subspace of \(P\) contains at least one element of \(S\), then \(| S| \geq ((q^{t+1})^ r- 1)/(q^{t+1}-1)\), with equality if and only if \(S\) is a geometric \(t\)- spread in a \(((t+1)r-1)\)-dimensional subspace of \(P\). If \(k=0\) and \(S\) is a \(t\)-spread, this implies that \(S\) is geometric. Since, for \(k=0\), geometric \(t\)-spreads in \(P\) satisfy the condition of the main result, the latter is a characterization of geometric spreads.