Ovoids of \(Q(6, q)\) of low degree (Q6587205)

Let \(\mathbb{P}\) be a finite classical polar space. The maximal totally isotropic/singular subspace of \(\mathbb{P}\) are called the generators of \(\mathbb{P}\). An ovoid of \(\mathbb{P}\) is a set of points of \(\mathbb{P}\) that meets each generator of \(\mathbb{P}\) in exactly one point. In the past few decades, ovoids of the parabolic quadrics \(Q(6,q)\) have been largely studied. To date, we know that ovoids of \(Q(6,q)\) may exist only if \(q\) is an odd prime power, and only two families of ovoids of \(Q(6,q)\) have been constructed, both of which require that \(q\) is a power of 3. One way to construct an ovoid is as follows. Let \(q\) be an odd prime power and \(\mathbb{F}_q\) a finite field of order \(q\). For two functions \(f_1\) and \(f_2\) from \(\mathbb{F}_q^3\) to \(\mathbb{F}_q\) with \(f_1(0,0,0)=f_2(0,0,0)=0\), define\N\begin{align*}\NO(f_1,f_2)=&\{(1,x,y,z,f_1(x,y,z),f_2(x,y,z),-z^2-yf_1(x,y,z)-xf_2(x,y,z))\mid x,y,z\in\mathbb{F}_q\}\\\N&\cup\{(0,0,0,0,0,0,1)\}.\N\end{align*}\NThen the set \(O(f_1,f_2)\) has size \(q^3+1\) which is the size of an ovoid of \(Q(6,q)\). Thus the set \(O(f_1,f_2)\) is an ovoid of \(Q(6,q)\) if and only if the points in \(O(f_1,f_2)\) are pairwise non-collinear, i.e.,\N\begin{align*}\N(z_1-z_2)^2&+(x_2-x_1)(f_2(x_2,y_2,z_2)-f_2(x_1,y_1,z_1))\\\N&+(y_2-y_1)(f_1(x_2,y_2,z_2)-f_1(x_1,y_1,z_1))\neq 0,\N\end{align*}\Nfor every \((x_1,y_1,z_1)\neq (x_2,y_2,z_2)\) in \(\mathbb{F}_q^3\).\N\NIn the paper under review, the authors classify ovoids of \(Q(6,q)\) with \(f_1\), \(f_2\) being low-degree polynomials. More precisely, they show that when \(\max\{\deg(f_1),\deg(f_2)\}<(\frac{1}{6.3}q)^{\frac{3}{13}}-1\), if \(O(f_1,f_2)\) is an ovoid of \(Q(6,q)\), then it is a Thas-Kantor ovoid.