No label defined (Q3973796)

[For the entire collection see Zbl 0727.00008.] The authors start by showing that the number of \(u\in GF(q)\) for which \(t-u\) is a non-zero square in \(GF(q^ h)\) (and where \(t\not\in GF(q^{h/2}\)) for \(h\) even) can differ at most \((h-1)(q/2)^{1/2}\) from \(q/2\). As a first application bounds for existence of blocking sets (i.e. a set of points in a projective or affine space meeting every line but not containing lines) are drastically improved. Roughly speaking, it is shown that whenever \(q\geq h^ 2+1\), there exists a blocking set in \(PG(h,q)\) and also in \(PG(h,q)\). As a second application, the authors construct large \((k,n)\)-arcs (i.e. sets of \(k\) points in \(PG(2,q)\) with some \(n\) but no \(n+1\) points collinear).