Combinatorial invariants for nets of conics in PG(2,q)

DOI10.1007/S10623-021-00881-9zbMATH Open1496.05017arXiv2010.00177OpenAlexW3172132597MaRDI QIDQ2168071FDOQ2168071

Authors: Michel Lavrauw, Tomasz Popiel, John Sheekey 

Publication date: 31 August 2022

Published in: Designs, Codes and Cryptography (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: The problem of classifying linear systems of conics in projective planes dates back at least to Jordan, who classified pencils (one-dimensional systems) of conics over $mathbbC$ and $mathbbR$ in 1906--1907. The analogous problem for finite fields $mathbb{F}_q$ with $q$ odd was solved by Dickson in 1908. In 1914, Wilson attempted to classify nets (two-dimensional systems) of conics over finite fields of odd characteristic, but his classification was incomplete and contained some inaccuracies. In a recent article, we completed Wilson's classification of nets of rank one, namely those containing a repeated line. The aim of the present paper is to introduce and calculate certain combinatorial invariants of these nets, which we expect will be of use in various applications. Our approach is geometric in the sense that we view a net of rank one as a plane in $extPG(5,q)$ that meets the quadric Veronesean in at least one point; two such nets are then equivalent if and only if the corresponding planes belong to the same orbit under the induced action of $extPGL(3,q)$ viewed as a subgroup of $extPGL(6,q)$. We have previously determined the orbits of lines in $extPG(5,q)$ under this action, which correspond to the aforementioned pencils of conics in $extPG(2,q)$. The main contribution of this paper is to determine the line-orbit distribution of a plane $pi$ corresponding to a net of rank one, namely, the number of lines in $pi$ belonging to each line orbit. It turns out that this list of invariants completely determines the orbit of $pi$, and we will use this fact in forthcoming work to develop an efficient algorithm for calculating the orbit of a given net of rank one. As a more immediate application, we also determine the stabilisers of nets of rank one in $extPGL(3,q)$, and hence the orbit sizes.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.00177

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zbMATH Keywords

netsinvariantconicsVeronese

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Multilinear algebra, tensor calculus (15A69) Combinatorial aspects of finite geometries (05B25) Combinatorial structures in finite projective spaces (51E20)

Cites Work

• Nets of conics
• Analytic projective geometry
• Nets of conics of rank one in \(\mathrm{PG}(2,q)\), \(q\) odd
• The symmetric representation of lines in \(\operatorname{PG} ( \mathbb{F}^3 \otimes \mathbb{F}^3 )\)
• Canonical forms of \(2 \times 3 \times 3\) tensors over the real field, algebraically closed fields, and finite fields
• Determining the Rank of Tensors in $$\mathbb {F}_q^2\otimes \mathbb {F}_q^3\otimes \mathbb {F}_q^3$$

Cited In (5)

• On pencils of cubics on the projective line over finite fields of characteristic \(>3\)
• Equivariant and invariant theory of nets of conics with an application to Thom polynomials
• Title not available (Why is that?)
• Solids in the space of the Veronese surface in even characteristic
• Nets of conics and associated Artinian algebras of length 7. Translation and update of the 1977 version by J. Emsalem and A. Iarrobino

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