A characterization of the sets of internal and external points of a conic (Q2643840)

In this paper, the authors classify all point subsets \(K\) of a finite Desarguesian projective plane of order \(q\), with \(q\) odd, such that each line intersects \(K\) in \(0,q,\frac{1}{2}(q-1)\) or \(\frac{1}{2}(q+1)\) points (but not all of these values have to occur). The result is that, generically, \(K\) is the set of internal or external points of a conic. Other possibilities are the points on certain partial line pencils (with the vertex removed), the set of points of a conic together with its external points, but with the points of one tangent line removed, and an exceptional example for \(q=5\) (all points lying on exactly \(0\) or \(2\) sides of a triangle). The proof uses standard counting techniques and it seems to the reviewer that, with a little more effort, one could generalize this to arbitrary finite projective planes of odd order, replacing conics by ovals.