Intersections between the norm-trace curve and some low degree curves (Q1994932)

The affine plane curve \(\mathcal{X}\) defined over the finite field \(\mathbb{F}_{q^r}\) by the equation \[x^{\frac{q^r-1}{q-1}}= y^{q^{r-1}}+y^{q^{r-2}}+\cdots +y^q+y\] is called {\em norm-trace curve}. The norm-trace curve is a natural generalization of the Hermitian curve to any extension field \(\mathbb{F}_{q^r}\). The determination of the intersection of a given curve \(\mathcal{X}\) and low degree curves is often useful for the determination of the weight distribution of the AG code arising from \(\mathcal{X}\). In this paper, the intersection of \(\mathcal{X}\) with cubics defined by equations of the form \(y = ax^3 + bx^2 + cx + d\), where \(a, b, c, d \in \mathbb{F}_{q^3}\), is studied. Especially, the intersection between the norm-trace curve and parabolas is characterised, and tools are provided in order to get sharp bounds for the number of intersections in the other cases. For this purpose specific irreducible surfaces over finite fields are studied. Furthermore, the weight distribution of the corresponding one-point codes are obtained.