arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to J. W. P. Hirschfeld.
Arcs and caps are fundamental structures in finite projective spaces. They can be generalised. Here, a survey is given of some important results on these objects, in particular on generalised ovals and generalised ovoids. The paper also contains recent results and several open problems.
Some geometry on non-singular cubic curves, mainly over finite fields, is surveyed. Such a curve has 9,3,1 or 0 points of inflexion, and cubic curves are classified accordingly. The group structure and the possible numbers of rational points are also surveyed. A possible strengthening of the security of elliptic curve cryptography is proposed using a `shared secret' related to the group law. Cubic curves are also used in a new way to construct sets of points having various combinatorial and geometric properties that are of particular interest in finite Desarguesian planes.
The genus of a maximal curve over a finite field with r^2 elements is either g_0=r(r-1)/2 or less than or equal to g_1=(r-1)^2/4. Maximal curves with genus g_0 or g_1 have been characterized up to isomorphism. A natural genus to be studied is g_2=(r-1)(r-3)/8, and for this genus there are two non-isomorphism maximal curves known when r \equiv 3 (mod 4). Here, a maximal curve with genus g_2 and a non-singular plane model is characterized as a Fermat curve of degree (r+1)/2.