Feet in orthogonal-Buekenhout-Metz unitals (Q1747162)

A unitial in a projective plane of order \(q^2\) is a set of \(q^3+1\) points of the plane such that every line intersections the set in exactly 1 or \(q+1\) points. The set \(U = \{ [x,\alpha x^2+\beta N(x)+r,1]; x \in \mathrm{GF}(q^2)\} \cup \{ P_\infty\}\) is known as the orthogonal-Buekenhout-Metz unital. If \(U\) is an orthogonal-Buekenhout-Metz unital and \(P\) is a point not in the unital, then each of the \(q+1\) points of \(U\) that are on a tangent line to \(U\) through \(P\) is said to be a foot of \(P\). The authors study the feet of \(P\) in the orthogonal-Buekenhout-Meta unital in \(\mathrm{PG}(2,q^2)\) and characterize each of them as either \(q+1\) collinear points or as \(q+1\) points partitioned into two arcs. Additional geometric results about these unitals are given.