Higgledy-piggledy subspaces and uniform subspace designs

Abstract

In this article, we investigate collections of `well-spread-out' projective (and linear) subspaces. Projective $k$-subspaces in $\mathsf{PG}(d,\mathbb{F})$ are in `higgledy-piggledy arrangement' if they meet each projective subspace of co-dimension $k$ in a generator set of points. We prove that the set $\mathcal{H}$ of higgledy-piggledy $k$-subspaces has to contain more than $\min{|\mathbb{F}|,\sum_{i=0}^k\lfloor\frac{d-k+i}{i+1}\rfloor}$ elements. We also prove that $\mathcal{H}$ has to contain more than $(k+1)\cdot(d-k)$ elements if the field $\mathbb{F}$ is algebraically closed. An $r$-uniform weak $(s,A)$ subspace design is a set of linear subspaces $H_1,..,H_N\le\mathbb{F}^m$ each of rank $r$ such that each linear subspace $W\le\mathbb{F}^m$ of rank $s$ meets at most $A$ among them. This subspace design is an $r$-uniform strong $(s,A)$ subspace design if $\sum_{i=1}^N\mathrm{rank}(H_i\cap W)\le A$ for $\forall W\le\mathbb{F}^m$ of rank $s$. We prove that if $m=r+s$ then the dual ($\{H_1^\bot,...,H_N^\bot\}$) of an $r$-uniform weak (strong) subspace design of parameter $(s,A)$ is an $s$-uniform weak (strong) subspace design of parameter $(r,A)$. We show the connection between uniform weak subspace designs and higgledy-piggledy subspaces proving that $A\ge\min{|\mathbb{F}|,\sum_{i=0}^{r-1}\lfloor\frac{s+i}{i+1}\rfloor}$ for $r$-uniform weak or strong $(s,A)$ subspace designs in $\mathbb{F}^{r+s}$. We show that the $r$-uniform strong $(s,r\cdot s+\binom{r}{2})$ subspace design constructed by Guruswami and Kopprty (based on multiplicity codes) has parameter $A=r\cdot s$ if we consider it as a weak subspace design. We give some similar constructions of weak and strong subspace designs (and higgledy-piggledy subspaces) and prove that the lower bound $(k+1)\cdot(d-k)+1$ over algebraically closed field is tight.