Line partitions of internal points to a conic in PG(2,q)

Abstract

All sets of lines providing a partition of the set of internal points to a conic C in PG(2,q), q odd, are determined. There exist only three such linesets up to projectivities, namely the set of all non-tangent lines to C through an external point to C, the set of all non-tangent lines to C through a point in C, and, for square q, the set of all non-tangent lines to C belonging to a Baer subplane PG(2,√q) with √q+1 common points with C. This classification theorem is the analogous of a classical result by Segre and Korchmaros [9] characterizing the pencil of lines through an internal point to C as the unique set of lines, up to projectivities, which provides a partition of the set of all non-internal points to C. However, the proof is not analogous, since it does not rely on the famous Lemma of Tangents of Segre which was the main ingredient in [9]. The main tools in the present paper are certain partitions in conics of the set of all internal points to C, together with some recent combinatorial characterizations of blocking sets of non-secant lines, see [2], and of blocking sets of external lines, see [1].