Maximum scattered linear sets and complete caps in Galois spaces (Q722320)

Let \(V\) be a vector space of dimension \(r\) over the finite field \(F_{q^t}\), with \(q=p^h\) and \(p\) a prime. The set of points \(L\) in \(\mathrm{PG}(V,F_{q^t})\) is an \(F_q\) linear set of rank \(k\) if \(L = \{ \langle u \rangle_{F_{q^t}} \;| \;u \in U - \{ 0 \} \}\), were \(U\) is an \(F_{q}\) vector space of \(V\) with dimension \(k\). The set \(L\) is said to be scattered if all of its points have weight 1. The authors give explicit constructions of infinite families of scattered \(F_q\) linear sets of maximal rank \({{rt}\over{2}}\), for \(t \geq 4\), \(t\) even. When \(q=2\), the linear sets correspond to complete arcs in \(\mathrm{AG}(r,2^t)\) fixed by a translation group of order \(2^{{rt}\over{2}}\). Applying the doubling construction gives complete caps in \(\mathrm{AG}(r+1,2^t)\) with size \(2^{{{rt}\over{2}}+1}.\) For Galois spaces of even dimension greater than 2 with even square order, this gives a solution to the long standing open problem of determining if the theoretical lower bound for the size of a complete cap is substantially sharp.