Maximal Arc - Definition

Definition

Let be a finite projective plane of order q (not necessarily desarguesian). Maximal arcs of degree d ( 2 ≤ dq- 1) are (k,d)-arcs in, where k is maximal with respect to the parameter d, in other words, k = qd + d - q.

Equivalently, one can define maximal arcs of degree d in as non-empty sets of points K such that every line intersects the set either in 0 or d points.

Some authors permit the degree of a maximal arc to be 1, q or even q+ 1. Letting K be a maximal (k, d)-arc in a projective plane of order q, if

  • d = 1, K is a point of the plane,
  • d = q, K is the complement of a line (an affine plane of order q), and
  • d = q + 1, K is the entire projective plane.

All of these cases are considered to be trivial examples of maximal arcs, existing in any type of projective plane for any value of q. When 2 ≤ dq- 1, the maximal arc is called non-trivial, and the definition given above and the properties listed below all refer to non-trivial maximal arcs.

Read more about this topic:  Maximal Arc

Famous quotes containing the word definition:

    ... if, as women, we accept a philosophy of history that asserts that women are by definition assimilated into the male universal, that we can understand our past through a male lens—if we are unaware that women even have a history—we live our lives similarly unanchored, drifting in response to a veering wind of myth and bias.
    Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)

    The definition of good prose is proper words in their proper places; of good verse, the most proper words in their proper places. The propriety is in either case relative. The words in prose ought to express the intended meaning, and no more; if they attract attention to themselves, it is, in general, a fault.
    Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)

    Scientific method is the way to truth, but it affords, even in
    principle, no unique definition of truth. Any so-called pragmatic
    definition of truth is doomed to failure equally.
    Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)