Unitals with many Baer secants through a fixed point (Q1737113)

A unital $U$ in $\mathrm{PG}(2,q^2)$ is a set of $q^3+1$ points such that each line contains exactly $1$ or $q+1$ points of $U$. A Baer subline in $\mathrm{PG}(1,q^2)$ is a set of $q+1$ points whose coordinates are in the field of order $q$. \textit{F. Buekenhout} [Geom. Dedicata 5, 189--194 (1976; Zbl 0336.50014)] constructed a class of unitals called ovoidal Buekenhout-Metz unitals and every known unital is obtained by this construction. The authors prove that a unital $U$ in $\mathrm{PG}(2,q^2)$ containing a point $P$, such that at least $q^2- \varepsilon$ of the secant lines through $P$ intersect $U$ in a Baer subline, is an ovoidal Buekenhout-Metz unital, where $\varepsilon$ and $q$ satisfy one of six conditions given in a table.