On some Kantor flocks (Q1849870)

This interesting article deals with flocks of the quadratic cone \(K\) of \(PG(3, q)\) with equation \(x_0x_1 = x_2^2\) and vertex \(v = (0,0,0,1)\). A flock \(F\) of \(K\) is a partition of \(K \setminus \{v\}\) into \(q\) conics. Note that for every flock \(F = \{\pi_t\}\) there exist two maps \(f\) and \(g\) of \(GF(q)\) such that \(\pi_t\) has the equation \(tx_0 - f(t)x_1 + g(t)x_2 + x_3 = 0\), \(t \in GF(q)\). \(F\) is called monomial if \(f\) and \(g\) are monomial functions. For \(q\) even monomial flocks are characterized. For \(q\) odd the known classes of monomial flocks are the linear flocks, the Kantor-Knuth flocks, the Fisher-Thas-Walker flocks and the Kantor-Payne flocks. A sporadic example for \(q = 3^5\) has been constructed by Bader, Lunardon and Pinneri. The authors show that monomial flocks (other than linear and Kantor-Knuth flocks) can be described as \(q-1\) osculating planes to a particular rational curve and one further plane, with some restrictions to the characteristics of the field \(GF(q)\). As a corollary the following theorem is shown: Let \(F\) be a Kantor-Payne flock. If \(p \neq 2, 3\), then \(F\) consists of the osculating planes to the curve \(\Sigma = \{(-15/8 s, - 3/40 s^5, 1/4 s^3 u^2, u^5) \mid s, u \in GF(q)\}\) at the \((q-1)\) points with \(s, u \neq 0\) plus the plane with equation \(x_3 = 0\).