Maximal integral point sets in affine planes over finite fields

Motivated by integral point sets in the Euclidean plane, we consider integral point sets in affine planes over finite fields. An integral point set is a set of points in the affine plane $\mathbb{F}_q^2$ over a finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$, where the formally defined squared Euclidean distance of every pair of points is a square in $\mathbb{F}_q$. It turns out that integral point sets over $\mathbb{F}_q$ can also be characterized as affine point sets determining certain prescribed directions, which gives a relation to the work of Blokhuis. Furthermore, in one important sub-case integral point sets can be restated as cliques in Paley graphs of square order. In this article we give new results on the automorphisms of integral point sets and classify maximal integral point sets over $\mathbb{F}_q$ for $q\le 47$. Furthermore, we give two series of maximal integral point sets and prove their maximality.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figures, 2 table

Integral point sets over finite fields

We consider point sets in the affine plane $\mathbb{F}_q^2$ where each Euclidean distance of two points is an element of $\mathbb{F}_q$. These sets are called integral point sets and were originally defined in $m$-dimensional Euclidean spaces $\mathbb{E}^m$. We determine their maximal cardinality $\mathcal{I}(\mathbb{F}_q,2)$. For arbitrary commutative rings $\mathcal{R}$ instead of $\mathbb{F}_q$ or for further restrictions as no three points on a line or no four points on a circle we give partial results. Additionally we study the geometric structure of the examples with maximum cardinality.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figure

Markoff Triples and Strong Approximation

We investigate the transitivity properties of the group of morphisms generated by Vieta involutions on the solutions in congruences to the Markoff equation as well as to other Markoff type affine cubic surfaces. These are dictated by the finite $\bar{\mathbb Q}$ orbits of these actions and these can be determined effectively. The results are applied to give forms of strong approximation for integer points, and to sieving, on these surface

Symplectic spreads, planar functions and mutually unbiased bases

In this paper we give explicit descriptions of complete sets of mutually unbiased bases (MUBs) and orthogonal decompositions of special Lie algebras $sl_n(\mathbb{C})$ obtained from commutative and symplectic semifields, and from some other non-semifield symplectic spreads. Relations between various constructions are also studied. We show that the automorphism group of a complete set of MUBs is isomorphic to the automorphism group of the corresponding orthogonal decomposition of the Lie algebra $sl_n(\mathbb{C})$. In the case of symplectic spreads this automorphism group is determined by the automorphism group of the spread. By using the new notion of pseudo-planar functions over fields of characteristic two we give new explicit constructions of complete sets of MUBs.Comment: 20 page

Tropical Skeletons

In this paper, we study the interplay between tropical and analytic geometry for closed subschemes of toric varieties. Let $K$ be a complete non-Archimedean field, and let $X$ be a closed subscheme of a toric variety over $K$. We define the tropical skeleton of $X$ as the subset of the associated Berkovich space $X^{\rm an}$ which collects all Shilov boundary points in the fibers of the Kajiwara--Payne tropicalization map. We develop polyhedral criteria for limit points to belong to the tropical skeleton, and for the tropical skeleton to be closed. We apply the limit point criteria to the question of continuity of the canonical section of the tropicalization map on the multiplicity-one locus. This map is known to be continuous on all torus orbits; we prove criteria for continuity when crossing torus orbits. When $X$ is sch\"on and defined over a discretely valued field, we show that the tropical skeleton coincides with a skeleton of a strictly semistable pair, and is naturally isomorphic to the parameterizing complex of Helm--Katz.Comment: 42 pages. The introduction was rewritten. Corollary 8.15 was renamed to Theorem 8.1

Maximum Distance Separable Codes and Arcs in Projective Spaces

Given any linear code $C$ over a finite field $GF(q)$ we show how $C$ can be described in a transparent and geometrical way by using the associated Bruen-Silverman code. Then, specializing to the case of MDS codes we use our new approach to offer improvements to the main results currently available concerning MDS extensions of linear MDS codes. We also sharply limit the possibilities for constructing long non-linear MDS codes.Comment: 18 Pages; co-author added; some results updated; references adde