On the spectrum of sizes of semiovals contained in the Hermitian curve (Q896076)

A semioval in a projective plane is a non-empty point set \(S\) with the property that for every point \(p\) there is a unique line \(\ell\) such that the \(S \cap \ell = \{p\}.\) The authors give constructions of semiovals coming from the Hermitian curve. Specifically, they give a construction of semiovals of size \(k\) in the projective plane of order \(q\) for all \(k\) satisfying \(2q^{{5}\over{4}} + 4q - 2 q^{{3}\over{4}} - 3 q^{{1}\over{2}} + 1 \leq k \leq q^{{3}\over{2}} +1\) if \(q=s^4\) and \(q \) is odd. Additionally, they give a construction of an infinite family of 2-blocking sets of the Hermitian curve.