Counting arcs in \mathbb F_q^2

arXiv2209.03064MaRDI QIDQ6409965FDOQ6409965

Krishnendu Bhowmick, Oliver Roche-Newton

Publication date: 7 September 2022

Abstract: An arc in $mathbb{F}_q^2$ is a set $Psubsetmathbb{F}_q^2$ such that no three points of $P$ are collinear. We use the method of hypergraph containers to prove several counting results for arcs. Let $mathcalA(q)$ denote the family of all arcs in $mathbb{F}_q^2$. Our main result is the bound [ |mathcal A(q)| leq 2^{(1+o(1))q}. ] This matches, up to the factor hidden in the $o(1)$ notation, the trivial lower bound that comes from considering all subsets of an arc of size $q$. We also give upper bounds for the number of arcs of a fixed (large) size. Let $k=q^t$ for some $t>2/3$, and let $mathcalA(q,k)$ denote the family of all arcs in $mathbb{F}_q^2$ with cardinality $k$. We prove that, for all $gamma>0$ [ |mathcal A(q,k)| leq �inom{(1+gamma)q}{k}. ] This result improves a bound of Roche-Newton and Warren. A nearly matching lower bound [ |mathcal A(q,k)| geq �inom{q}{k} ] follows by considering all subsets of size $k$ of an arc of size $q$.

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