Higgledy-piggledy sets in projective spaces of small dimension (Q2161220)

Summary: This work focuses on higgledy-piggledy sets of \(k\)-subspaces in \(\text{PG}(N, q)\), i.e. sets of projective subspaces that are `well-spread-out'. More precisely, the set of intersection points of these \(k\)-subspaces with any \((N-k)\) subspace \(\kappa\) of \(\text{PG}(N, q)\) spans \(\kappa\) itself. We highlight three methods to construct small higgledy-piggledy sets of \(k\)-subspaces and discuss, for \(k\in\{1, N-2\} \), `optimal' sets that cover the smallest possible number of points. Furthermore, we investigate small non-trivial higgledy-piggledy sets in \(\text{PG}(N, q), N\leqslant5\). Our main result is the existence of six lines of \(\text{PG}(4, q)\) in higgledy-piggledy arrangement, two of which intersect. Exploiting the construction methods mentioned above, we also show the existence of six planes of \(\text{PG}(4, q)\) in higgledy-piggledy arrangement, two of which maximally intersect, as well as the existence of two higgledy-piggledy sets in \(\text{PG}(5, q)\) consisting of eight planes and seven solids, respectively. Finally, we translate these geometrical results to a coding- and graph-theoretical context.