Around Rédei's theorem (Q1808825)

The paper gives many lovely applications of the problems solved in the monograph ``Lacunary Polynomials over Finite Fields'' [Budapest: Akademiai Kiado (1973; Zbl 0255.12009)] by \textit{L. Rédei}. The many recent applications to blocking sets, as surveyed by \textit{A. Blokhuis} [in Combinatorics, Paul Erdős is Eighty, Vol. 2, Bolyai Soc. Math. Stud. 2, 133-154 (1996; Zbl 0849.51005)], are not discussed in great detail here, but rather other applications to finite geometry and group theory are emphasized. A few of these applications are listed below. A function \(f: F\to F\), where \(F\) is a field, is called \textit{planar} if \(x \to f(x+a)-f(x)\) is bijective for every \(0\not= a \in F\). Trivial examples of planar functions are quadratic functions over fields of odd characteristic. Using Rédei's work, one can show relatively easily that over the field \(F_p\), \(p\) an odd prime, every planar function is quadratic. It should be noted that recently \textit{R. S. Coulter} and \textit{R. W. Matthews} [Des. Codes Cryptography 10, 167-184 (1997; Zbl 0872.51007)] showed that \(f(x)=x^{(3^a+1)/2}\) is planar over \(F_{3^e}\) if and only if \(a\) and \(e\) are relatively prime and \(a\) is odd. They then used this class of functions to construct projective planes of Lenz-Barlotti type II. Several results on the number of directions determined by a set of points in a Desarguesian affine plane are given as applications of Rédei's work. For instance, it is shown that a set of \(p-n\) points in \(AG(2,p)\), where \(p\) is a prime and \(n\geq 0 \) an integer, is either contained in a line or determines at least \((p+3-n)/2\) directions. For a general prime power \(q\), a set \({\mathcal U}\) in \(AG(2,q)\), where \(|{\mathcal U} |= q-n\) with \(n\leq \sqrt{q}/2\), determines at least \((q+1)/2\) directions or is contained in a set \(V\) with \(|V|=q\) which determines the same directions as \({\mathcal U}\). For many of these arguments the so-called Rédei polynomial of the set \({\mathcal U}\) is used. It should be noted that this polynomial is not lacunary. A somewhat surprising application to the theory of permutation groups is the following. Let \(G\) be a premutation group on the points of \(AG(2,p)\), \(p\) a prime, containing all the translations. Let \(G_0\) be the stabilizer of the origin, and let \(S\) be a set of \(k\) lines \((1\leq k\leq (p+1)/2)\) through the origin. It follows from Rédei's work that if \(G_0\) leaves the set of points on a line of \(S\) invariant, then every \(g \in G_0\) maps a line of \(S\) onto a line. This is the so-called ``Visibility Theorem'' of Wielandt.