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Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter January 8, 2013

Blocking semiovals containing conics

  • J. M. Dover EMAIL logo , K. E. Mellinger EMAIL logo and K. L. Wantz EMAIL logo
From the journal Advances in Geometry

Abstract

A blocking semioval is a set of points in a projective plane that is both a blocking set (i.e., every line meets the set, but the set contains no line) and a semioval (i.e., there is a unique tangent line at each point). Sz˝onyi investigated an infinite family of blocking semiovals that are formed from the union of conics contained in a particular type of algebraic pencil. In this paper, the authors look at the general problem of blocking semiovals containing conics, proving a lower bound on the size of such sets and providing several new constructions of blocking semiovals containing conics. In addition, the authors investigate the natural generalization of Sz˝onyi’s construction to other conic pencils.


Research supported by a sabbatical leave from the University of Mary Washington

Published Online: 2013-01-08
Published in Print: 2013-01

© 2013 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co.

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