On the intersection of Hermitian curves and of Hermitian surfaces

Abstract

Kestenband [Unital intersections in finite projective planes, Geom. Dedicata 11(1) (1981) 107–117; Degenerate unital intersections in finite projective planes, Geom. Dedicata 13(1) (1982) 101–106] determines the structure of the intersection of two Hermitian curves of PG ( 2 , q 2 ) , degenerate or not. In this paper we give a new proof of Kestenband's results. Giuzzi [Hermitian varieties over finite field, Ph.D. Thesis, University of Sussex, 2001] determines the structure of the intersection of two non-degenerate Hermitian surfaces H and H ′ of PG ( 3 , q 2 ) when the Hermitian pencil defined by H and H ′ contains at least one degenerate Hermitian surface. We give a new proof of Giuzzi's results and we obtain some new results in the open case when all the Hermitian surfaces of the Hermitian pencil are non-degenerate.