Large blocking sets in PG(2,q2)

Minimal blocking sets in $\mathrm{PG}(2,q^2)$ have size at most $q^3+1$. This result is due to Bruen and Thas and the bound is sharp, sets attaining this bound are called unitals. In this paper, we show that the second largest minimal blocking sets have size at most $q^3+1-(p-3)/2$, if $q=p$, $p\ge 67$, or $q=p^h$, $p>7$, $h>1$. Our proof also works for sets having at least one tangent at each of its points (that is, for tangency sets).     

Atomic decompositions for noncommutative martingales

We prove an atomic type decomposition for the noncommutative martingale Hardy space ${\mathsf{h}}_p$ for all $0<p<2$ by an explicit constructive method using algebraic atoms as building blocks. Using this elementary construction, we obtain a weak form of the atomic decomposition of ${\mathsf{h}}_p$ for all $0<p<1$, and provide a constructive proof of the atomic decomposition for $p=1$ which resolves a main problem on the subject left open for the last twelve years. We also study ${(p,\infty )}_c$-atoms, and show that every ${(p,2)}_c$-atom can be decomposed into a sum of ${(p,\infty )}_c$-atoms; consequently, for every $0<p\le 1$, the ${(p,q)}_c$-atoms lead to the same atomic space for all $2\le q\le \infty$. As applications, we obtain a characterization of the dual space of the noncommutative martingale Hardy space ${\mathsf{h}}_p$ ($0<p<1$) as a noncommutative Lipschitz space via the weak form of the atomic decomposition. Our constructive method can also be applied to prove some sharp martingale inequalities.     

On the Newton polygons of twisted L-functions of binomials

Let χ be an order c multiplicative character of a finite field and $f(x)=x^d+\lambda x^e$ a binomial with $(d,e)=1$. We study the twisted classical and T-adic Newton polygons of f. When $p>(d-e)(2d-1)$, we give a lower bound of Newton polygons and show that they coincide if p does not divide a certain integral constant depending on $p\mathrm{mod}cd$.We conjecture that this condition holds if p is large enough with respect to $c,d$ by combining all known results and the conjecture given by Zhang-Niu. As an example, we show that it holds for $e=d-1$.     

Erdős matching conjecture for almost perfect matchings

In 1965 Erd?s asked, what is the largest size of a family of k-element subsets of an n-element set that does not contain a matching of size $s+1$? In this note, we improve upon a recent result of Frankl and resolve this problem for $s>101k^3$ and $(s+1)k?n<(s+1)(k+\frac{1}{100k})$.     

Permutation trinomials over Fq3

We consider four classes of polynomials over the fields ${\mathbb{F}}_{q^3}$, $q=p^h$, $p>3$, $f_1(x)=x^{q^2+q-1}+A{x}^{q^2-q+1}+Bx$, $f_2(x)=x^{q^2+q-1}+A{x}^{q^3-q^2+q}+Bx$, $f_3(x)=x^{q^2+q-1}+A{x}^{q^2}-Bx$, $f_4(x)=x^{q^2+q-1}+A{x}^q-Bx$, where $A,B\in {\mathbb{F}}_q$. We find sufficient conditions on the pairs $(A,B)$ for which these polynomials permute ${\mathbb{F}}_{q^3}$ and we give lower bounds on the number of such pairs.