Constructing minimal blocking sets using field reduction

Abstract

We present a construction for minimal blocking sets with respect to $(k-1)$-spaces in $\mathrm{PG}(n-1,q^t)$, the $(n-1)$-dimensional projective space over the finite field $\mathbb{F}_{q^t}$ of order $q^t$. The construction relies on the use of blocking cones in the {\em field reduced} representation of $\mathrm{PG}(n-1,q^t)$, extending the well-known construction of linear blocking sets. This construction is inspired by the construction for minimal blocking sets with respect to the hyperplanes by Mazzocca, Polverino and Storme ({\em the MPS-construction}); we show that for a suitable choice of the blocking cone over a planar blocking set, we obtain larger blocking sets than the ones obtained from planar blocking sets in \cite{pol}. Furthermore we show that every minimal blocking set with respect to the hyperplanes in $\mathrm{PG}PG(n-1,q^t)$ can be obtained by applying field reduction to a minimal blocking set with respect to $(nt-t-1)$-spaces in $\mathrm{PG}(nt-1,q)$. We end by relating these constructions to the linearity conjecture for small minimal blocking sets. We show that if a small minimal blocking set is constructed from the MPS-construction, it is of R\'edei-type whereas a small minimal blocking set arises from our cone construction if and only if it is linear.