Upper bounds on the smallest size of a complete arc in \(\mathrm{PG}(2, {q})\) under a certain probabilistic conjecture (Q2352635)

An \(n\)-arc in a projective plane is a set of \(n\) points such that no three are collinear. The arc is said to be complete if it is not contained in an \((n+1)\)-arc. The smallest size of a complete arc in a plane of order \(q\) is denoted by \(t_2(2,q)\). The authors give an iterative construction of complete arcs and show that the uncovered points are uniformly distributed over the plane. A conjecture is given which would imply the following upper bounds for this value \(t_2(2,q) < \sqrt{q} \sqrt{3\ln(q) +\ln(\ln(q)) + \ln(3)} + \sqrt{{q}\over{3\ln(q)}} + 3\) and \(t_2(2,q) < (1.87) \sqrt{q\ln(q)}\). These results are compared with known computational results on the size of \(t_2(2,q)\).