Nuclei of normal rational curves (Q1841866)

A conic of a projective plane \(PG(2,F)\) over a commutative field \((F,+,\cdot)\) of \(\text{char }F= 2\) has the property that all tangents meet in a common point, the so-called knot or nucleus. The conics belong to the class of normal rational curves \(\Gamma\): If \(PG(n,F)\) denotes the \(n\)-dimensional projective space over a commutative field \((F,+,\cdot)\) then \(\Gamma\) has the representation \(\Gamma= \{F(1,t,\dots, t^n)\mid t\in F\cup\{\infty\}\}\). In each point \(p(t)\) of \(\Gamma\) one can define besides the tangent, for each \(k\in \{2,\dots, n-1\}\) the osculating \(k\)-subspace \(S^{(k)}_t\Gamma\) generated by \(p(t)= (1,t,\dots, t^n)\), \(p'(t):= (0,{1\choose 1}, {2\choose 1}t,\dots, {n\choose 1} t^{n-1}),\dots, p^{(k)}(t):= (0,\dots, 0,{k\choose k},{k+1\choose k}t,\dots, {n\choose k} t^{n-k})\) if \(t\in F\) and \(S^{(k)}_\infty\Gamma:= \langle l_{n-k},\dots, l_n\rangle\) where \(l_i= F\cdot(\delta_{ij})\). Then \(N^{(k)}\Gamma:= \bigcap_{t\in F\cup\{\infty\}} S^{(k)}_t\Gamma\) is called the \(k\)-nucleus of \(\Gamma\). By this definition follows: \(\emptyset=N^{(0)}(\Gamma)=\cdots= N^{(r)}(\Gamma)\subset N^{(r+ 1)}(\Gamma)\subset\cdots\subset N^{(n-1)}(\Gamma)\) if \(r:= \lfloor {n-1\over 2}\rfloor\). If \(\text{char }F= 0\) then all \(k\)-nuclei are empty. For \(\text{char }F:= p>0\) and \(|F|\geq n\) the authors determine the \(k\)-nuclei and their dimensions. If \(m\) is the number of non-zero digits in the representation of \(n+1\) in base \(p\) then there are \(m\) distinct nuclei.