Covering plane curves over finite fields with lines

Abstract

We prove that, for every fixed $d\geq 2$ and $\varepsilon>0$, the $\mathbb{F}_q$-points of a geometrically irreducible reflexive plane curve of degree $d$ over $\mathbb{F}_q$ can be covered by at most $\left(\frac{1}{d}+\varepsilon\right)q$ many $\mathbb{F}_q$-lines, provided that $q$ is sufficiently large. The same conclusion holds for $\mathbb{F}_q$-irreducible curves that are not geometrically irreducible, since they have only $O(d^2)$ $\mathbb{F}_q$-points. In particular, for sufficiently large $q$, the bound applies to every $\mathbb{F}_q$-irreducible plane curve of degree $d$ when $\operatorname{char}(\mathbb{F}_q)>d$. Our bound is asymptotically sharp. The proof combines Entin's Chebotarev density theorem for varieties over finite fields with the Pippenger--Spencer theorem on covers of nearly regular hypergraphs.