Arcs and curves over a finite field (Q1808849)

An improved bound on the size of a complete \(k\)-arc in \(\text{PG}(2,q)\), \(q=2^h\) and \(q\) square, is given. Namely, if \(k>12\) for \(q=16\) or \(k>q-2\sqrt{q}+6\) for \(q\geq 64\), then necessarily \(k=q-\sqrt{q}+1\) or \(k=q+2\). In particular, this implies that the full list of sizes for complete arcs in \(\text{PG}(2,16)\) is 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 18. The idea is to first develop a new characterization for a Hermitian curve as follows. Let \({\mathcal C} _n\) be an absolutely irreducible plane algebraic curve of degree \(n>1\) defined over \(F_q\), \(q\) square, for \(q=p^h\) with \(p=2\) or \(p=3\). Using technical computations involving order sequences, it is shown that if \(2 \sqrt{q}-4>n\) for \(q>16\) or \(2\sqrt{q}-2>n\) for \(q\leq 16\), then the number of non-singular \(F_q\)-rational points on \({\mathcal C}_n\) is less than or equal to \(n(q+2-n)\), with equality holding if and only if \({\mathcal C}_n\) is Hermitian. The paper concludes with another application involving unitals embedded in the Desarguesian plane. Let \({\mathcal U}\) be a unital (Hermitian arc) in \(\text{PG}(2,q)\), \(q=p^h\) and \(q\) square, and suppose \({\mathcal C}_n\) is an absolutely irreducible curve of degree \(n\) defined over \(F_q\) and passing through all the points of \({\mathcal U}\). If \(q=p^2\), or \(q=16\), or \(p\geq 17\) with \(h\geq 4\), then either \(n>2\sqrt{q}-4\) or \({\mathcal U}\) is a classical unital with \({\mathcal C}_n\) an Hermitian curve. It should be noted that the nonclassical Buekenhout-Metz unitals lie on curves having degree \(2\sqrt{q}\).