Maximum number of points of intersection of a non-degenerate Hermitian variety and a cubic hypersurface

Abstract

Edoukou, Ling and Xing in 2010, conjectured that in \mathbb{P}^n(\mathbb{F}_{q^2}), n \geq 3, the maximum number of common points of a non-degenerate Hermitian variety \mathcal{U}_n and a hypersurface of degree d is achieved only when the hypersurface is a union of d distinct hyperplanes meeting in a common linear space Π_{n-2} of codimension 2 such that Π_{n-2} \cap \mathcal{U}_n is a non-degenerate Hermitian variety. Furthermore, these d hyperplanes are tangent to \mathcal{U}_n if n is odd and non-tangent if n is even. In this paper, we show that the conjecture is true for d = 3 and q \geq 7.

The title of the article has been changed, although the main results remain unchanged. Accepted for publication in "Designs, Codes and Cryptography"