A geometric construction of a \((38,2)\)-blocking set in \(\mathrm{PG}(2,13)\) and the related \([145,3,133]_{13}\) code (Q2470013)

An \((l,n)\)-blocking set \(S\) in \(\text{PG}(2,q)\) is a set of \(l\) points such that every line of \(\text{PG}(2,q)\) intersects \(S\) in at least \(n\) points, and there is a line intersecting \(S\) in exactly \(n\) points. When the size \(l\) of \(S\) is not specified, we also call \(S\) an \(n\)-fold blocking set of \(\text{PG}(2,q)\). For \(q\) prime, it was conjectured that a 2-fold blocking set \(S\) of \(\text{PG}(2,q)\) always would have size at least \(3q\). The author gives a counterexample to this conjecture by constructing a 2-fold blocking set \(S\) of size 38 in \(\text{PG}(2,13)\). This is the second counterexample for the conjecture on the size of 2-fold blocking sets in \(\text{PG}(2,q)\), \(q\) prime. Recently, \textit{M. Braun, A. Kohnert} and \textit{A. Wassermann} [Innov. Incidence Geom. 1, 133--141 (2005; Zbl 1116.51008)] also constructed a 2-fold blocking set of size 38 in \(\text{PG}(2,13)\).