A note on large Kakeya sets (Q2046817)

An affine plane of order \(q\) is a set of \(q^2\) points and \(q^2+ q\) lines such that every two points lie on exactly one line and any two lines meet in at most one point. The line set of an affine plane of order \(q\) can be partitioned into \(q + 1\) sets of \(q\) pairwise disjoint lines, called parallel classes. A Kakeya set (also called a minimal Besicovitch set) \(\mathcal{K}\) of an affine plane is the set of points covered by a set of lines having exactly one line in each parallel class. A \(j\)-knot is a point of the Kakeya set that is on \(j\) lines of the underlying line set, but not on \(j+1\) of them. \textit{J. M. Dover} and \textit{K. E. Mellinger} [Adv. Geom. 15, No. 3, 333--338 (2015; Zbl 1321.51009)] proved that Kakeya sets with size at least \(q^2-3q +9\) contain a large knot. In this paper, the authors improve on this result by showing that Kakeya sets of size at least \(\approx q^2- q\sqrt{q} +\frac{3}{2} q\) contain a large knot, and they obtain a sharp result for planes containing a Baer subplane.