Two families of blocking semiovals (Q1587919)

[The following text reviews both this article and the following one in ibid., 967-972 (2000; Zbl 0969.51015).] Let \(\Pi\) be a projective plane. A semioval in \(\Pi\) is a set \(S\) of points such that for every point \(P\in S\) there is a unique line \(l\) of \(S\) such that \(l\cap S=\{P\}\). A blocking semioval (BSO) in \(\Pi\) is a semioval \(S\) of \(\Pi\) such that each line \(l\) of \(\Pi\) meets \(S\) but is not entirely contained in \(S\). The notion of semioval has been around since the 1970's (in work of F. Buekenhout and J. A. Thas), but the study of blocking semiovals has recently been motivated by \textit{L. Betten} and initiated by \textit{J. M. Dover} [Eur. J. Comb. 21, No. 5, 571-577 (2000; Zbl 0969.51016) and `Semiovals with large collinear subsets', J. Geom. 69, No.1-2, 58-67 (2000; Zbl 0968.51005)]. In the first paper listed above the author studies BSOs in a plane of order \(q\) that meet some line in \(q-1\) points. He constructs families of examples with size \(3q-4\) in \(PG(2,q)\) (with \(q\geq 5)\) that generalize those constructed by J. Dover, and then gives a second family in \(PG(2,q^e)\), of size \(3q^e-q-2\), where \(q\geq 3\) and \(e\geq 2\). In the second paper the author relaxes the condition that some line meets the BSO in \(q-1\) points and produces three families of examples, in some of which each line meets the BSO in fewer than \(q-1\) points. In this paper he concentrates on those examples that admit certain homology groups, among which his earlier constructions are included. The author studies BSOs in terms of a coordinatizing ternary ring, so that some of his results should be helpful in studying these objects in non-desarguesian planes, but his examples and main results apply primarily to \(PG(2,q)\). He also uses computer searches to determine all BSOs of certain types in \(PG(2,q)\) for several small \(q\), including all possible examples with some line having \(q-1\) points of the BSO when \(q=7,8,9,11\).