2-ranks of incidence matrices associated with conics in finite projective planes (Q2248650)

Let \(\mathcal O\) be a fixed non singular conic of \(\mathrm{PG}(2,q),\) with \(q\) odd. With respect to \(\mathcal O\) the lines are partitioned in passant, tangent and external lines. Similarly the points are partitioned in internal, conic, and external points. The open secant-internal neighbor \(N_{{\mathcal S},{\mathcal I}}(P)\) of an internal point \(P\) is the set of internal points on a secant line incident with \(P\) different from \(P\) and the close secant-internal neighbor is \(\overline{N_{{\mathcal S},{\mathcal I}}(P)}=N_{{\mathcal S},{\mathcal I}}(P)\cup \{P\}.\) The open passant-external neighbor \(N_{{{\mathcal P},\mathcal E}}(Q)\) of an external point \(Q\) consists of the external points on the passant lines from \(Q\) different from \(Q\) and the close passant-external neighbor is \(N_{{{\mathcal P},\mathcal E}}(Q)\cup \{Q\}\). Let \(\mathbb{M}\), \(\overline{\mathbb M}\), \(\mathbb{N}\), \(\overline{\mathbb N}\) be the incidence matrices of internal points versus their open secant-internal neighbors, internal points versus their close secant-internal neighbors, external points versus their open passant-external neighbors, external points versus their close passant-external neighbors, respectively. These matrices define an LDPC-code. In this paper, the authors calculate the \(2\)-ranks of the incidence matrices \(\mathbb{M}\), \(\overline{\mathbb M}\), \(\mathbb{N}\), \(\overline{\mathbb N}\).