Direction problems in affine spaces

This paper is a survey paper on old and recent results on direction problems in finite dimensional affine spaces over a finite field.Comment: Academy Contact Forum "Galois geometries and applications", October 5, 2012, Brussels, Belgiu

The maximum size of a partial spread in H(5, q²) is q³+1

AbstractIn this paper, we show that the largest maximal partial spreads of the hermitian variety H(5,q2) consist of q3+1 generators. Previously, it was only known that q4 is an upper bound for the size of these partial spreads. We also show for q⩾7 that every maximal partial spread of H(5,q2) contains at least 2q+3 planes. Previously, only the lower bound q+1 was known

A combinatorial characterisation of embedded polar spaces

Some classical polar spaces admit polar spaces of the same rank as embedded polar spaces (often arisen as the intersection of the polar space with a non-tangent hyperplane). In this article we look at sets of generators that behave combinatorially as the set of generators of such an embedded polar space, and we prove that they are the set of generators of an embedded polar space