On the stability of small blocking sets (Q402943)

Let \(\mathrm{PG}(2,q)\) be the projective plane over the Galois field \(\mathrm{GF}(q)\), \(q\) prime power. A \(t\)-fold blocking set \(B\) of \(\mathrm{PG}(2,q)\) is a set of points of \(\mathrm{PG}(2,q)\) intersecting every line in at least \(t\) points. A point \(P\in B\) is called \textit{essential} if there exists a line through \(P\) intersecting \(B\) in exactly \(t\) points. The blocking set \(B\) is called \textit{minimal} if all its points are essential. A \(1\)-fold blocking set in \(\mathrm{PG}(2,q)\) is called \textit{small} if it has size less than \(3(q+1)/2\). The main result of the paper is the following. { Theorem}. Let \(B\) be a point set in \(\mathrm{PG}(2,q)\), \(q\geq 16\), of size less than \(3(q+1)/2\). Denote the number of external lines of \(B\) by \(\delta\) and assume that \[ \delta < \min \left\{(q-1)\frac{2q+1-|B|}{2(|B|-q)}, \frac{(q-\sqrt{q})^{3/2}}{2} \right\}. \] Then \(B\) can be obtained from a \(1\)-fold blocking set by deleting at most \[ \frac{\delta}{2q+1-|B|}+\frac{1}{2} \] points of it. Also, the authors obtain a similar result with a more uniform bound on \(\delta\), namely \(\frac{pq}{100}\), in the case \(q=p^h\), \(h>1\). The results are achieved using some algebraic methods related to Rédei polynomials.