An elementary description of the Mathieu dual hyperoval and its splitness (Q2634815)

A collection \(\mathcal S\) of \(1 +\sum_{i=0}^{n-1} q^i\) subspaces of dimension \(n\) in a vector space \(U\) over \(\mathbb{F}_q\) is called a \textit{dimensional dual hyperoval} (abbreviated to DHO) of rank \(n\) over \(\mathbb{F}_q\), if any two distinct members of them intersect at an \(1\)-dimensional subspace, but any three mutually distinct members intersect at the zero space. The subspace of \(U\) spanned by all members of \(\mathcal S\) is called the ambient space of \(\mathcal S.\) The Mathieu dual hyperoval \(\mathcal M\) is a DHO of rank \(3\) over \(\mathbb{F}_4\) with ambient space the \(6\)-dimensional unitary space \(U\), i.e. all members of \(\mathcal M\) are totally isotropic with respect to the unitary form on \(U\). In this paper, regarding \(U\) as the symmetric square tensor product \(S^2(V )\) of a \(3\)-dimensional space \(V\), the DHO \(\mathcal M\) is constructed as a deformation of the standard Veronesean DHO \({\mathcal V_3}(\mathbb{F}_4)\) with extra diagonal terms given by a map \(\mathfrak{i}\) on \(V\). The map \(\mathfrak{i}\) is quadratic having the exterior product \(\times\) as the associated alternating bilinear map. Based on this description, the linear automorphism group \(L(\mathcal M)\) of \(\mathcal M\) is determined in a self-contained and explicit manner proving that the factor group of \(L(\mathcal M)\) by its center is isomorphic to the Mathieu group \(M_{22}\).