The exterior splash in \(\mathrm{PG}(6, q)\): carrier conics (Q1707409)

The plane \(\pi\) is an exterior order \(q\)-subplane of \(\mathrm{PG}(2,q^3)\) if it is exterior to a line \(\ell_\infty\). The lines of \(\pi\) meet \(\ell_\infty\) in a set of size \(q^2+q+1\) which is called the exterior splash of \(\pi\) on \(\ell_\infty.\) They are projectively equivalent to scattered linear sets of rank 3, covers of the circle geometry \(\mathrm{CG}(3,q)\), and hyper reguli of \(\mathrm{PG}(5,q).\) The authors use the Bruck-Bose representation in \(\mathrm{PG}(6,q)\) to give a geometric characterization of carrier conics. Specifically, they show that the carrier conics in an exterior order \(q\)-subplane of \(\mathrm{PG}(2,q^3)\) correspond exactly to the \(X\)-special twisted cubics in \(\mathrm{PG}(6,q)\) where \(X\) is a cover of the exterior splash. Additionally, they study properties of subplanes of order \(q\) with a common exterior splash and the intersection of two exterior splashes.