A spectrum result on minimal blocking sets with respect to the planes of PG(3, q), q odd

This article presents a spectrum result on minimal blocking sets with respect to the planes of PG(3, q), q odd. We prove that for every integer k in an interval of, roughly, size [q ²/4, 3q ²/4], there exists such a minimal blocking set of size k in PG(3, q), q odd. A similar result on the spectrum of minimal blocking sets with respect to the planes of PG(3, q), q even, was presented in Rößing and Storme (Eur J Combin 31:349–361, 2010). Since minimal blocking sets with respect to the planes in PG(3, q) are tangency sets, they define maximal partial 1-systems on the Klein quadric Q ⁺(5, q), so we get the same spectrum result for maximal partial 1-systems of lines on the Klein quadric Q ⁺(5, q), q odd.     

Enneper immersions

We describe a method to construct minimal surfaces inR ³ which has many computational simplicities and prove that any immersed minimal surface inR ³ may be constructed by using that method. We also show that under certain finite hypotheses on the orders of the coordinate functions, among all conformal minimal immersions of the plane with Gauss mapg=e ^az+b only the parametrizations of helicoids and planes are proper embeddings.     

Planar Functions and Planes of Lenz-Barlotti Class II

Planar functions were introduced by Dembowski and Ostrom [4] to describe projective planes possessing a collineation group with particular properties. Several classes of planar functions over a finite field are described, including a class whose associated affine planes are not translation planes or dual translation planes. This resolves in the negative a question posed in [4]. These planar functions define at least one such affine plane of order 3^e for every e 4 and their projective closures are of Lenz-Barlotti type II. All previously known planes of type II are obtained by derivation or lifting. At least when e is odd, the planes described here cannot be obtained in this manner.     

A Note on Shiffman's Theorems

Shiffman proved his famous first theorem, that if A R³ is a compact minimal annulus bounded by two convex Jordan curves in parallel (say horizontal) planes, then A is foliated by strictly convex horizontal Jordan curves. In this article we use Perron's method to construct minimal annuli which have a planar end and are bounded by two convex Jordan curves in horizontal planes, but the horizontal level sets of the surfaces are not all convex Jordan curves or straight lines. These surfaces show that unlike his second and third theorems, Shiffman's first theorem is not generalizable without further qualification.     

On Minimal Annuli with a Straight Line Boundary

Shiffman proved that if a minimal annulus A in a slab is bounded by two convex Jordan curves contained respectively in the two boundary planes P and Q of the slab, then A intersects all parallel planes between P and Q in strictly convex curves. We generalize Shiffman's result to the case that A is bounded by a strictly convex C² Jordan curve and a straight line. We show that in this case Shiffman's result is still true.     

On large minimal blocking sets in PG(2,q)

The size of large minimal blocking sets is bounded by the Bruen–Thas upper bound. The bound is sharp when q is a square. Here the bound is improved if q is a non‐square. On the other hand, we present some constructions of reasonably large minimal blocking sets in planes of non‐prime order. The construction can be regarded as a generalization of Buekenhout's construction of unitals. For example, if q is a cube, then our construction gives minimal blocking sets of size q^4/3 + 1 or q^4/3 + 2. Density results for the spectrum of minimal blocking sets in Galois planes of non‐prime order is also presented. The most attractive case is when q is a square, where we show that there is a minimal blocking set for any size from the interval . © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 13: 25–41, 2005.     

Closure planes

We introduce a simple algebraic method for constructing infinite affine (and projective) planes from an infinite set of finite planes of prime power order stemming from a “root” plane. The construction uses finite fields and infinite extensions of finite fields in a critical way. We obtain a classical-looking result which states that if the construction succeeds over the algebraic closure of a finite field, then both the infinite plane and the original root plane must be Desarguesian. The Lenz–Barlotti types for these planes are then linked to the Lenz–Barlotti type of the root plane. Examples are then given. These show that under suitable conditions, the method can yield infinitely many non-isomorphic infinite planes. These examples are of Lenz–Barlotti types II.1 and V.1.     

Exceptional directions for a convex body

Let K be a convex body in Rⁿ andO be a point inside K. We examine the Grassmann manifold of k-planes passing throughO. We take as exceptional the planes intersecting K along a body having at least one (k – 1)-dimensional face such that it does not have points inside the hyperfaces of body K. We prove that in the Grassmann manifold G _k ⁿ the set of such exceptional planes is of measure zero.Translated from Matematicheskie Zametki, Vol. 20, No. 3, pp. 365–371, September, 1976.The author thanks V. A. Zalgaller for aid and advice on the work.     

Minimal helix surfaces in <Emphasis Type="Italic">N</Emphasis><Superscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis></Superscript>×ℝ

An immersed surface M in N ⁿ ×ℝ is a helix if its tangent planes make constant angle with ∂ _t . We prove that a minimal helix surface M, of arbitrary codimension is flat. If the codimension is one, it is totally geodesic. If the sectional curvature of N is positive, a minimal helix surfaces in N ⁿ ×ℝ is not necessarily totally geodesic. When the sectional curvature of N is nonpositive, then M is totally geodesic. In particular, minimal helix surfaces in Euclidean n-space are planes. We also investigate the case when M has parallel mean curvature vector: A complete helix surface with parallel mean curvature vector in Euclidean n-space is a plane or a cylinder of revolution. Finally, we use Eikonal f functions to construct locally any helix surface. In particular every minimal one can be constructed taking f with zero Hessian.     

A note on Hilbert and Beltrami systems

Hilbert and Beltrami (line- ) systems were introduced by H. Mohrmann, Math. Ann. 85 (1922) p.177- 183. These systems give examples of non- desarguesian affine planes, in fact, the earliest known examples are of this type. We describe a construction for “generalized Beltrami systems”, and show that every such system defines a topological affine plane with point set ?². Since our construction uses only the topological structure of ?²- planes, it is possible to iterate this process. As an application, we obtain an embeddability theorem for a class of two- dimensional stable planes, including Strambach’s exceptional SL₂R- plane.     

On translation planes of orderq 3 that admit a collineation group of orderq 3

Let II be a translation plane of orderq ³, with kernel GF(q) forq a prime power, that admits a collineation groupG of orderq ³ in the linear translation complement. Moreover, assume thatG fixes a point at infinity, acts transitively on the remaining points at infinity andG/E is an abelian group of orderq ², whereE is the elation group ofG.In this article, we determined all such translation planes. They are (i) elusive planes of type I or II or (ii) desirable planes.Furthermore, we completely determined the translation planes of orderp ³, forp a prime, admitting a collineation groupG of orderp ³ in the translation complement such thatG fixes a point at infinity and acts transitively on the remaining points at infinity. They are (i) semifield planes of orderp ³ or (ii) the Sherk plane of order 27.     

Topologische Divisionsalgebren ohne zugehörige topologische affine Ebene

We prove that many (non-associative) topological division algebrasD of dimensionn ∈ N over the centreK do not yield topological affine or projective planes (of Lenz-Barlotti type V) in contrast to the results of SKORNJAKOV [20], SALZMANN [18] and [19], GRUNDHÖFER [7], HARTMANN [11] and RINK [17] concerning projective planes coordinatized by compact or special topological ternary fields. In particular, this holds for every non-trivial and non-archimedian valuation topology ofK distinct from the order topology ifK is a real-closed field, and if the division algebraD =K ⁿ carries the product topology.     

Minimal enclosing discs,circumcircles, and circumcenters in normed planes (Part II)

Until now there are almost no results on the precise geometric location of minimal enclosing balls of simplices in finite-dimensional real Banach spaces. We give a complete solution of the two-dimensional version of this problem, namely to locate minimal enclosing discs of triangles in arbitrary normed planes. It turns out that this solution is based on the classification of all possible shapes that the intersection of two norm circles can have, and on a new classification of triangles in normed planes via their angles. We also mention that our results are closely related to basic notions like coresets, Jung constants, the monotonicity lemma, and d-segments.     

Equi-isoclinic planes of Euclidean spaces

In a Euclidean space, a p-set of equi-isoclinic planes is a set of p isoclinic planes of which each pair has the same non-zero angle.The Euclidean 4-space E⁴ contains a unique congruence class of quadruples of equi-isoclinic planes, whereas quintuples of equi-isoclinic planes do not exist in E⁴.In the following a method is given to derive sets of equi-isoclinic planes in Euclidean spaces. We find again the well-known sets of equi-isoclinic planes of E⁴. The quadruples of equi-isoclinic planes in E⁵ are derived. It turns out that E⁵ contains one congruence class of such quadruples which are not flat quadruples and one congruence class of quintuples of equi-isoclinic planes, whereas sextuples of equi-isoclinic planes do not exist in E⁵.It appears that the symmetry group of that quintuple is isomorphic to the symmetric group S₅.     

Benz planes of Dembowski type and groups of tangential projectivities

Using the tangential relation we introduce in Benz planes M of Dembowski type, which generalize the Benz planes over algebras of characteristic 2, the group ?? of tangential perspectivities. We prove that these groups have the same behaviour as the classical groups of projectivities if any tangential perspectivity is induced by an automorphism of M. As permutation groups of a circle onto itself the groups ?? essentially differs from the classical groups of projectivities. If M is a Laguerre plane of Dembowski type, then ?? is always sharply 3-transitive. For Minkowski planes of Dembowski type ?? is at least 2-transitive. If M is a finite Benz plane of order 2 ^s , then ?? is isomorphic to the group PGL ₂(2 ^s ) in its sharply 3-transitive representation.     

Matroid Enumeration for Incidence Geometry

Matroids are combinatorial abstractions for point configurations and hyperplane arrangements, which are fundamental objects in discrete geometry. Matroids merely encode incidence information of geometric configurations such as collinearity or coplanarity, but they are still enough to describe many problems in discrete geometry, which are called incidence problems. We investigate two kinds of incidence problem, the points–lines–planes conjecture and the so-called Sylvester–Gallai type problems derived from the Sylvester–Gallai theorem, by developing a new algorithm for the enumeration of non-isomorphic matroids. We confirm the conjectures of Welsh–Seymour on ≤11 points in ℝ³ and that of Motzkin on ≤12 lines in ℝ², extending previous results. With respect to matroids, this algorithm succeeds to enumerate a complete list of the isomorph-free rank 4 matroids on 10 elements. When geometric configurations corresponding to specific matroids are of interest in some incidence problems, they should be analyzed on oriented matroids. Using an encoding of oriented matroid axioms as a boolean satisfiability (SAT) problem, we also enumerate oriented matroids from the matroids of rank 3 on n≤12 elements and rank 4 on n≤9 elements. We further list several new minimal non-orientable matroids.     

On Stein neighborhood basis of real surfaces

In this paper, we show that a compact real surface embedded in a complex surface has a regular Stein neighborhood basis, provided that there are only finitely many complex points on the surface, and that they are all flat and hyperbolic. An application to unions of totally real planes in ² is then given.Mathematics Subject Classification (2000): 32V40, 32Q28     

Radial Graphs of Constant Mean Curvature and Doubly Connected Minimal Surfaces with Prescribed Boundary

In this paper we investigate existence and uniqueness of radial graphs ofconstant mean curvature (cmc) with prescribed boundary. Our main resultestablishes the existence of a minimal radial anullus spanning two givenconvex curves in parallel planes of R³; we also obtain a variant ofa well-known result of James Serrin about the existence of radial cmc graphsover convex domains in the sphere.     

Immersions of Finite Geometric Type in Euclidean Spaces

In this paper, we introduce the class of hypersurfaces of finitegeometric type. They are defined as the ones that share the basicdifferential topological properties of minimal surfaces of finite totalcurvature. We extend to surfaces in this class the classical theorem ofOsserman on the number of omitted points of the Gauss mapping ofcomplete minimal surfaces of finite total curvature. We give aclassification of the even-dimensional catenoids as the only even-dimensional minimal hypersurfaces of R ⁿ of finite geometric type.     

An extended optimal replacement model of systems subject to shocks

A system is subject to shocks that arrive according to a non-homogeneous Poisson process. As shocks occur a system has two types of failures: type I failure (minor failure) is rectified by a minimal repair, whereas type II failure (catastrophic failure) is removed by replacement. The probability of a type II failure is permitted to depend on the number of shocks since the last replacement. This paper proposes a generalized replacement policy where a system is replaced at the nth type I failure or first type II failure or at age T, whichever occurs first. The cost of the minimal repair of the system at age t depends on the random part C(t) and deterministic paper c(t). The expected cost rate is obtained. The optimal n¹ and optimal T¹ which would minimize the cost rate are derived and discussed. Various special cases are considered and detailed.