Power sum polynomials in a discrete tomography perspective

Abstract

For a point of the projective space $\PG(n,q)$, its Rédei factor is the linear polynomial in $n+1$ variables, whose coefficients are the point coordinates. The power sum polynomial of a subset $S$ of $\PG(n,q)$ is the sum of the $(q-1)$-th powers of the Rédei factors of the points of $S$. The fact that many subsets may share the same power sum polynomial offers a natural connection to discrete tomography. In this paper we deal with the two-dimensional case and show that the notion of ghost, whose employment enables to find all solutions of the tomographic problem, can be rephrased in the finite geometry context, where subsets with null power sum polynomial are called ghosts as well. In the latter case, one can add ghosts still preserving the power sum polynomial by means of the multiset sum (modulo the field characteristic). We prove some general results on ghosts in $\PG(2,q)$ and compute their number in case $q$ is a prime.

13 pages, 2 figures; accepted for publication in Lecture Notes in Computer Science