A new family of maximal curves over a finite field (Q957897)

Let \(q\) be an even power of a prime \(p\) and let \(\mathbb{F}_q\) be a finite field with \(q\) elements. A projective, smooth, geometrically irreducible, genus \(g\) curve \(X\) over \(\mathbb{F}_q\) is called a \textit{maximal curve} if the number of its \(\mathbb{F}_q\)-rational points attains the Hasse-Weil upper bound: \(\#X(\mathbb{F}_q)=q+1+2g\sqrt{q}\). Most of the known maximal curves are Galois subcovers of the Deligne-Lusztig curves [see sections 18, 19, 22 of the book by \textit{N. E. Hurt}, Many rational points. Coding theory and algebraic geometry. Kluwer (2003; Zbl 1072.11042)]. In the paper under review the authors explicitely construct a maximal curve \(X\) over \(\mathbb{F}_q\), for every \(q=n^6\), with \(n\) a power of \(p\). For \(q>64\), this curve is not \(\mathbb{F}_q\)-covered neither by a Deligne-Lusztig curve nor by the Garcia-Stichtenot maximal curve [\textit{A. Garcia} and \textit{H. Stichtenoth}, Bull. Braz. Math. Soc. (N.S.) 37, 139--152 (2006; Zbl 1118.14033)]. The curve is constructed in the three dimensional projective space, as the complete intersection of the hermitian cone with affine equation \(X^n+X=Y^{n+1}\) and the surface with affine equation \(Z^{n^2-n+1}=Yh(X)\), where \(h(X)\) is the polynomial \((X^{n^2}-X)/(X^n+X)\). The \(\mathbb{F}_q\)-automorphism group of \(X\) has a large size, \(\#\text{Aut}(X)=n^3(n^3+1)(n^2-1)(n^2-n+1)\), with respect to its genus \(g=\frac12(n^3+1)(n^2-2)+1\).