A characterization of the non-Baer lines of a Hermitian surface (Q1926116)

A Hermitian surface in \(\mathrm{PG}(3,q^2)\) is a variety \(v(H)\), where \(H\) is a Hermitian form of the underlying vector space. Each line meets this surface in either 1, \(q+1\), or \(q^2+1\) points. If \({\mathcal L}\) is a set of lines, \({\mathcal L}\) is of type \((a_0,a_1,\dots,a_\rho)\) with respect to pencils (stars) if each pencil (star) contains \(a_i\) lines of \({\mathcal L}\) for some \(i\) and all cases occur. The authors give a characterization of the set of lines which either belong to or are tangent to a non-singular Hermitian space. Specifically, they prove the following. Let \({\mathcal L}\) be a set of lines of \(\mathrm{PG}(3,q^2)\) and let \(a,b,m,n\) be non-negative integers such that: \({\mathcal L}\) is of type \((1,a,b)\) with respect to pencils of lines; \({\mathcal L} \) is of type \((m,n)\) with respect to stars of lines; \({\mathcal L}\) contains exactly \((q^2-q+1)(q^5+q^2+q+1)\) lines; \({\mathcal L}\) contains exactly \({{1}\over{2}}q^6(q^8 -2q^7 + 2q^6 + q^5 - 2q^4 + 3q^3 +1)\) pairs of skew lines; there are exactly \(q^2(2q^7 -q^6 + 3q^5 + q^4 + 3q^2 -q +1)\) pencils meeting \({\mathcal L}\) in exactly one line. Then \({\mathcal L}\) is the set of all the non-Baer lines of a Hermitian surface.