Minimal covering of all chords of a conic in \(\mathrm{PG}(2,q),q\) even (Q2471456)

Let \(G=\{\varphi_a\mid a\in H\}\), \(H\) a subgroup of \((\text{GF}(q),+)\), be a subgroup of \(T=\{\varphi_a\mid \varphi_a:(X,Y)\to(X+a,Y+a^2), a\in GF(q)\}\). Define \(\Gamma\) to be the set of all centers of all nontrivial translations in \(G\). If \(P=(u,u^2)\) is an affine point in the conic \(\mathcal{C}\), the orbit of \(P\) under \(G\) is \(\Delta_u=\{(a+u,a+u^2)\mid a\in H\}\). The set \(\mathcal{B}(G,u)=(\mathcal{C}\setminus\Delta_u)\cup T\) is a blocking set of the chords of \(\mathcal{C}\). In this paper, the authors prove the following result: Theorem 1.1. Let \(\mathcal{C}\) be an irreducible conic of \(\text{PG}(2,q)\) with \(q=2^h\) and let \(\mathcal{L}\) be the set of all chords of \(\mathcal{C}\). Any pointset \(\mathcal{B}\) of \(\text{PG}(2,q)\) meeting every line of \(\mathcal{L}\) has size at least \(q\). If equality holds than \(\mathcal{B}=\mathcal{B}(G,u)\) for some \(\mathcal{B}(G,u)\) arising from an additive subgroup \(H\) of \(\text{GF}(q)\) as in the above construction.