Minimum blocking configurations (Q1911999)

There are three main theorems in this paper. The first states that up to equivalence, the only minimal blocking configuration of the unique projective plane of order 8, \(\text{PG}(2,8)\), is the projective triad. The projective triad consists of \(\{(0,1,a),(1,0,a),(1,1,a):a\in C_0\}\) where \(C_0\) is the subgroup of elements of category zero of the additive group \(\text{GF}(8)\). The second main theorem states that a finite projective plane of order nine has no irreducible blocking 14-set. The authors point out that it is known that a minimal blocking set has size 13 and in the case of \(\text{PG}(2,9)\) there are no irreducible blocking 14-sets. The result given here applies to other three projective planes as well. The third main theorem states that in a projective plane of order \(q\) with \(11\leq q\leq 15\), there are no blocking \((q+5)\)-sets. The proofs are based on the character equations and an improvement introduced here called the attraction property. Let \(B\) be a blocking \(k\)-set in a projective plane of order \(q\). The attraction property states that an \(r\)-secant line intersects every line having at least \(k-q+2-r\) points in common with \(B\) in an inner point.