On cutting blocking sets and their codes

Abstract

Abstract Let PG ⁡ ( r , q ) {\operatorname{PG}(r,q)} be the r-dimensional projective space over the finite field GF ⁡ ( q ) {\operatorname{GF}(q)} . A set 𝒳 {\mathcal{X}} of points of PG ⁡ ( r , q ) {\operatorname{PG}(r,q)} is a cutting blocking set if for each hyperplane Π of PG ⁡ ( r , q ) {\operatorname{PG}(r,q)} the set Π ∩ 𝒳 {\Pi\cap\mathcal{X}} spans Π. Cutting blocking sets give rise to saturating sets and minimal linear codes, and those having size as small as possible are of particular interest. We observe that from a cutting blocking set obtained in [20], by using a set of pairwise disjoint lines, there arises a minimal linear code whose length grows linearly with respect to its dimension. We also provide two distinct constructions: a cutting blocking set of PG ⁡ ( 3 , q 3 ) {\operatorname{PG}(3,q^{3})} of size 3 ⁢ ( q + 1 ) ⁢ ( q 2 + 1 ) {3(q+1)(q^{2}+1)} as a union of three pairwise disjoint q-order subgeometries, and a cutting blocking set of PG ⁡ ( 5 , q ) {\operatorname{PG}(5,q)} of size 7 ⁢ ( q + 1 ) {7(q+1)} from seven lines of a Desarguesian line spread of PG ⁡ ( 5 , q ) {\operatorname{PG}(5,q)} . In both cases, the cutting blocking sets obtained are smaller than the known ones. As a byproduct, we further improve on the upper bound of the smallest size of certain saturating sets and on the minimum length of a minimal q-ary linear code having dimension 4 and 6.