On the size of the smallest non-classical blocking set of Rédei type in \(PG (2, p)\) (Q1971012)

Let \(U\) be a set of \(q\) points in the affine plane \(AG(2,q)\), \(q\) any prime power. An element \(m\in GF(q)\cup\{\infty\}\) is said to be a direction determined by \(U\) if \(m\) is the slope of a line joining two distinct points of \(U\). If \(q\) is a prime, say \(q=p\), then it is known that if \(U\) is not a line, then the number \(N\) of directions determined by \(U\) is at least \((p+ 3)/2\) and equality holds if and only if \(U\) is projectively equivalent to the graph of the polynomial \(x^{p+1\over 2}\). In this paper the author proves the following: if \(N>(p+3)/2\), then \(U\) determines at least \((p-1)/2+ {1\over 3} \sqrt p\) directions. Also, he conjectures that this bound is not sharp and that it should be \((2p+2)/3\) or \((2p+4)/3\) for \(3|(p-1)\). The result is also formulated in blocking set terminology. A blocking set in the projective plane \(PG(2,q)\) is a set of points meeting every line, but containing no line. If \(U\) is a set of \(q\) points in \(AG(2,q)\) different from a line and we add to \(U\) all points at infinity corresponding to the directions it determines, then we obtain a blocking set in \(PG(2,q)\) of size \(q+N\). All the blocking sets arising in this way are called of Rédei type. The above result says that a blocking set of Rédei type in \(PG(2,p)\), which is not equivalent to the blocking set obtained from the function \(x^{p+1\over 2}\), contains at least \(p+(p-1)/2+ {1\over 3}\sqrt p\) points.