A class of complete arcs in multiply derived planes

We prove that unital-derived (q^2 - q + 1)-arcs of PG(2, q^2) still yield complete arcs after multiple derivation with respect to disjoint derivation sets on a given line

On regular sets of affine type in finite Desarguesian planes and related codes

In this paper, we consider point sets of finite Desarguesian planes whose multisets of intersection numbers with lines is the same for all but one exceptional parallel class of lines. We call such sets regular of affine type. When the lines of the exceptional parallel class have the same intersection numbers, then we call these sets regular of pointed type. Classical examples are e.g. unitals; a detailed study and constructions of such sets with few intersection numbers is due to Hirschfeld and Sz\H{o}nyi from 1991. We here provide some general construction methods for regular sets and describe a few infinite families. The members of one of these families have the size of a unital and meet affine lines of $\mathrm{PG}(2, q^2)$ in one of $4$ possible intersection numbers, each of them congruent to $1$ modulo $\sqrt{q}$. As a byproduct, we determine the intersection sizes of the Hermitian curve defined over $\mathrm{GF}(q^2)$ with suitable rational curves of degree $\sqrt{q}$ and we obtain $\sqrt{q}$-divisible codes with $5$ non-zero weights. We also determine the weight enumerator of the codes arising from the general constructions modulus some $q$-powers.Comment: 16 pages/revised and improved versio

Semifields, relative difference sets, and bent functions

Recently, the interest in semifields has increased due to the discovery of several new families and progress in the classification problem. Commutative semifields play an important role since they are equivalent to certain planar functions (in the case of odd characteristic) and to modified planar functions in even characteristic. Similarly, commutative semifields are equivalent to relative difference sets. The goal of this survey is to describe the connection between these concepts. Moreover, we shall discuss power mappings that are planar and consider component functions of planar mappings, which may be also viewed as projections of relative difference sets. It turns out that the component functions in the even characteristic case are related to negabent functions as well as to $\mathbb{Z}_4$-valued bent functions.Comment: Survey paper for the RICAM workshop "Emerging applications of finite fields", 09-13 December 2013, Linz, Austria. This article will appear in the proceedings volume for this workshop, published as part of the "Radon Series on Computational and Applied Mathematics" by DeGruyte