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We use $p$-rank bounds on partial ovoids and the classical bounds on Ramsey numbers to obtain various upper bounds on partial $m$-ovoids in finite polar spaces. These bounds imply non-existence of $m$-ovoids for various new families of polar spaces. We give a probabilistic construction of large partial $m$-ovoids when $m$ grows linearly with the rank of the polar space. In the special case of the symplectic spaces over the binary field, we show an equivalence between partial $m$-ovoids and a generalisation of the Oddtown theorem from extremal set theory that has been studied under the name of nearly $m$-orthogonal sets over finite fields. We give new constructions for partial $m$-ovoids in these spaces and thus $m$-nearly orthogonal sets, for small values of $m$. These constructions use triangle-free graphs whose complements have low $\mathbb{F}_2$-rank and we give an asymptotic improvement over the state of the art. We also prove new lower bounds in the recently introduced rank-Ramsey problem for triangles vs cliques, Comment: 12 pages

We investigate what we call generalized ovoids, that is families of totally isotropic subspaces of finite classical polar spaces such that each maximal totally isotropic subspace contains precisely one member of that family. This is a generalization of ovoids in polar spaces as well as the natural $q$-analog of a subcube partition of the hypercube (which can be seen as a polar space with $q=1$). Our main result proves that a generalized ovoid of $k$-spaces in polar spaces of large rank does not exist. More precisely, for $q=p^h$, $p$ prime, and some positive integer $k$, a generalized ovoid of $k$-spaces in a polar space $\mathcal{P}$ with rank $r \geq r_0(k, p)$ in a vector space $V(n,q)$ does not exist., Comment: 10 pages

Matthew Kwan and Yuval Wigderson showed that for an infinite family of graphs, the Lov\'asz number gives an upper bound of $O(n^{3/4})$ for the size of an independent set (where $n$ is the number of vertices), while the weighted inertia bound cannot do better than $\Omega(n)$. Here we point out that there is an infinite family of graphs for which the Lov\'asz number is $\Omega(n^{3/4})$, while the unweighted inertia bound is $O(n^{1/2})$., Comment: 3 pages. I do not plan to publish this note/example

We classify the Boolean degree $1$ functions of $k$-spaces in a vector space of dimension $n$ (also known as Cameron-Liebler classes) over the field with $q$ elements for $n \geq n_0(k, q)$. This also implies that two-intersecting sets with respect to $k$-spaces do not exist for $n \geq n_0(k, q)$. Our main ingredient is the Ramsey theory for geometric lattices., Comment: 12 pages; version accepted by the AMS Proceedings

There are 6 families of finite polar spaces of rank $3$. The set of lines in a rank $3$ polar space form a rank $5$ association scheme. We determine the regular sets of minimal size in several of these polar spaces, and describe some examples. We also give a new family of Cameron--Liebler sets of generators in the polar spaces $O^+(10,q)$ when $q = 3^h$ using a regular set of lines in $O(7,q)$.

Given a finite Lie incidence geometry which is either a polar space of rank at least $3$ or a strong parapolar space of symplectic rank at least $4$ and diameter at most $4$, or the parapolar space arising from the line Grassmannian of a projective space of dimension at least $4$, we show that its point graph is determined by its local structure. This follows from a more general result which classifies graphs whose local structure can vary over all local structures of the point graphs of the aforementioned geometries. In particular, this characterises the strongly regular graphs arising from the line Grassmannian of a finite projective space, from the half spin geometry related to the quadric $Q^+(10,q)$ and from the exceptional group of type $\mathsf{E_6}(q)$ by their local structure., Comment: 12 pages

A minimum storage regenerating (MSR) subspace family of $\mathbb{F}_q^{2m}$ is a set $\mathcal{S}$ of $m$-spaces in $\mathbb{F}_q^{2m}$ such that for any $m$-space $S$ in $\mathcal{S}$ there exists an element in $\mathrm{PGL}(2m, q)$ which maps $S$ to a complement and fixes $\mathcal{S} \setminus \{ S \}$ pointwise. We show that an MSR subspace family of $2$-spaces in $\mathbb{F}_q^4$ has at most size $6$ with equality if and only if it is a particular subset of a Segre variety. This implies that an $(n, n-2, 4)$-MSR code has $n \leq 9$., Comment: 9 pages; various editing

We construct a new family of strongly regular graphs with the same parameters as the strongly regular graphs $D_{5,5}(q)$. The construction can be seen as a variant of the construction of twisted Grassmann graphs by Van Dam and Koolen., Comment: 7 pages, probably the accepted version, minor changes based on comments by another referee (which where inaccessible during the previous revision for technical reasons)

A \emph{subcube partition} is a partition of the Boolean cube $\{0,1\}^n$ into subcubes. A subcube partition is irreducible if the only sub-partitions whose union is a subcube are singletons and the entire partition. A subcube partition is tight if it "mentions" all coordinates. We study extremal properties of tight irreducible subcube partitions: minimal size, minimal weight, maximal number of points, maximal size, and maximal minimum dimension. We also consider the existence of homogeneous tight irreducible subcube partitions, in which all subcubes have the same dimensions. We additionally study subcube partitions of $\{0,\dots,q-1\}^n$, and partitions of $\mathbb{F}_2^n$ into affine subspaces, in both cases focusing on the minimal size. Our constructions and computer experiments lead to several conjectures on the extremal values of the aforementioned properties., Comment: 39 pages

An affine vector space partition of $\operatorname{AG}(n,q)$ is a set of proper affine subspaces that partitions the set of points. Here we determine minimum sizes and enumerate equivalence classes of affine vector space partitions for small parameters. We also give parametric constructions for arbitrary field sizes., Comment: 24 pages, accepted version

A $(k; r, s; n, q)$-set (short: $(r,s)$-set) of $\mathrm{PG}(n, q)$ is a set of points $X$ with $|X| = k$ such that no $s$-space contains more than $r$ points of $X$. We investigate the asymptotic size of $(r, s)$-sets for $n$ fixed and $q \rightarrow \infty$. In particular, we show the existence of $(3, 2)$-sets of size $(1+o(1)) q^{3/2}$ for $n=6$, $(4, 2)$-sets of size $(1+o(1)) q^{\frac{n-1}{2}}$, and $(9, 2)$-sets of size $(1+o(1)) q^2$ for $n=4$. We also generalize a bound by Rao from 1947 and show that an $(r,s)$-set has size at most $O(q^{\frac{n-e+1}{e}})$ if there exist integers $d,e \geq 2$ such that $s=d(e-1)$ and $r=de-1$., Comment: 10 pages, removed the part on random polynomials which duplicated recent work by Sudakov and Tomon

Given positive integers $e_1,e_2$, let $X_i$ denote the set of $e_i$-dimensional subspaces of a fixed finite vector space $V=(\mathbb{F}_q)^{e_1+e_2}$. Let $Y_i$ be a non-empty subset of $X_i$ and let $\alpha_i=|Y_i|/|X_i|$. We give a positive lower bound, depending only on $\alpha_1,\alpha_2,e_1,e_2,q$, for the proportion of pairs $(S_1,S_2)\in Y_1\times Y_2$ which intersect trivially. As an application, we bound the proportion of pairs of non-degenerate subspaces of complementary dimensions in a finite classical space that intersect trivially. This problem is motivated by an algorithm for recognizing classical groups. By using techniques from algebraic graph theory, we are able to handle orthogonal groups over the field of order 2, a case which had eluded Niemeyer, Praeger, and the first author., Comment: 15 pages, 1 table, 1 figure

We give variants of the Krein bound and the absolute bound for graphs with a spectrum similar to that of a strongly regular graph. In particular, we investigate what we call approximately strongly regular graphs. We apply our results to extremal problems. Among other things, we show the following: (1) Caps in $\mathrm{PG}(n, q)$ for which the number of secants on exterior points does not vary too much, have size at most $O(q^{\frac34 n})$ (as $q \rightarrow \infty$ or as $n \rightarrow \infty$). (2) Optimally pseudorandom $K_m$-free graphs of order $v$ and degree $k$ for which the induced subgraph on the common neighborhood of a clique of size $i \leq m-3$ is similar to a strongly regular graph, have $k = O(v^{1 - \frac{1}{3m-2i-5}})$., Comment: 24 pages; most material from version 1 is back, more examples, inertia bound added

For an incidence geometry $\mathcal{G} = (\mathcal{P}, \mathcal{L}, \text{I})$ with a linear representation $\mathcal{T}_n^*(\mathcal{K})$, we apply WQH switching to construct a non-geometric graph $\Gamma'$ cospectral with the line graph $\Gamma$ of $\mathcal{G}$. As an application, we show that for $h \geq 2$ and $0 < m < h$, there are strongly regular graphs with parameters $(v, k, \lambda, \mu) = (2^{2h} (2^{m+h}+2^m-2^h), 2^h (2^h+1)(2^m-1), 2^h (2^{m+1}-3), 2^h (2^m-1))$ which are not point graphs of partial geometries of order $(s,t,\alpha) = ((2^h+1)(2^m-1), 2^h-1, 2^m-1)$., Comment: 4 pages; updated claims about what is new

We investigate the existence of Boolean degree $d$ functions on the Grassmann graph of $k$-spaces in the vector space $\mathbb{F}_q^n$. For $d=1$ several non-existence and classification results are known, and no non-trivial examples are known for $n \geq 5$. This paper focusses on providing a list of examples on the case $d=2$ in general dimension and in particular for $(n, k)=(6,3)$ and $(n,k) = (8, 4)$. We also discuss connections to the analysis of Boolean functions, regular sets/equitable bipartitions/perfect 2-colorings in graphs, $q$-analogs of designs, and permutation groups. In particular, this represents a natural generalization of Cameron-Liebler line classes., Comment: 21 pages; 1 figure; accepted in the Electronic Journal of Combinatorics

In 2008, Vallentin made a conjecture involving the least distortion of an embedding of a distance-regular graph into Euclidean space. Vallentin's conjecture implies that for a least distortion Euclidean embedding of a distance-regular graph of diameter $d$, the most contracted pairs of vertices are those at distance $d$. In this paper, we confirm Vallentin's conjecture for several families of distance-regular graphs. We also provide counterexamples to this conjecture, where the largest contraction occurs between pairs of vertices at distance $d{-}1$. We suggest three alternative conjectures and prove them for several families of distance-regular graphs., Comment: 19 pages

Recently, Pavese and Smaldore constructed graphs cospectral to $NU(5, q^2)$ for $q>2$. We show that their construction works for $NU(n, q^2)$, $n \geq 5$. Hence, none of the graphs $NU(n, q^2)$, $n \geq 5$, are determined by their spectrum., Comment: Merged with arXiv:2012.10651 [math.CO]

Let $H(n, q^2)$ be a non-degenerate Hermitian variety of $PG(n, q^2)$, $n \ge 2$. Let NU$(n+1, q^2)$ be the graph whose vertices are the points of $PG(n, q^2) \setminus H(n, q^2)$ and two vertices $P_1$, $P_2$ are adjacent if the line joining $P_1$ and $P_2$ is tangent to $H(n, q^2)$. Then NU$(n + 1, q^2)$ is a strongly regular graph. In this paper we show that NU$(n + 1, q^2)$, $n \ne 3$, is not determined by its spectrum.

We provide an abundance of strongly regular graphs (SRGs) for certain parameters $(n, k, \lambda, \mu)$ with $n < 100$. For this we use Godsil-McKay (GM) switching with a partition of type $4,n-4$ and Wang-Qiu-Hu (WQH) switching with a partition of type $3,3,n-6$ or $4,4,n-8$. In most cases, we start with a highly symmetric graph which belongs to a finite geometry. Many of the obtained graphs are new; for instance, we find 16565438 strongly regular graphs with parameters $(81, 30, 9, 12)$ while only 15 seem to be described in the literature. We provide statistics about the size of the occurring automorphism groups. We also find the recently discovered Kr\v{c}adinac partial geometry, thus finding a third method of constructing it., Comment: 21 pages; accepted version, 26 Tables, 1 Figure

We study Cameron-Liebler $k$-sets in the affine geometry, so sets of $k$-spaces in $\text{AG}(n, q)$. This generalizes research on Cameron-Liebler $k$-sets in the projective geometry $\text{PG}(n, q)$. Note that in algebraic combinatorics, Cameron-Liebler $k$-sets of $\text{AG}(n, q)$ correspond to certain equitable bipartitions of the Association scheme of $k$-spaces in $\text{AG}(n, q)$, while in the analysis of Boolean functions, they correspond to Boolean degree $1$ functions of $\text{AG}(n, q)$. We define Cameron-Liebler $k$-sets in $\text{AG}(n, q)$ by intersection properties with $k$-spreads and show the equivalence of several definitions. In particular, we investigate the relationship between Cameron-Liebler $k$-sets in $\text{AG}(n, q)$ and $\text{PG}(n, q)$. As a by-product, we calculate the character table of the association scheme of affine lines. Furthermore, we characterize the smallest examples of Cameron-Liebler $k$-sets. This paper focuses on $\text{AG}(n, q)$ for $n > 3$, while the case for Cameron-Liebler line classes in $\text{AG}(3, q)$ was already treated separately.

In 1965, Paul Erd\H{o}s asked about the largest family $Y$ of $k$-sets in $\{ 1, \ldots, n \}$ such that $Y$ does not contain $s+1$ pairwise disjoint sets. This problem is commonly known as the Erd\H{o}s Matching Conjecture. We investigate the $q$-analog of this question, that is we want to determine the size of a largest family $Y$ of $k$-spaces in $\mathbb{F}_q^n$ such that $Y$ does not contain $s+1$ pairwise disjoint $k$-spaces. Here we call two subspaces disjoint if they intersect trivially. Our main result is, slightly simplified, that if $16 s \leq \min\{ q^{\frac{n-k}{4}},$ $q^{\frac{n-2k+1}{3}} \}$, then $Y$ is either small or a union of intersecting families. Thus we show the Erd\H{os} Matching Conjecture for this range. The proof uses a method due to Metsch. We also discuss constructions. In particular, we show that for larger $s$, there are large examples which are close in size to a union of intersecting families, but structurally different. As an application, we discuss the close relationship between the Erd\H{o}s Matching Conjecture for vector spaces and Cameron-Liebler line classes (and their generalization to $k$-spaces), a popular topic in finite geometry for the last 30 years. More specifically, we propose the Erd\H{o}s Matching Conjecture (for vector spaces) as an interesting variation of the classical research on Cameron-Liebler line classes., Comment: 13 pages, several mistakes corrected (thanks to referees)

We consider the algebraic combinatorics of the set of injections from a $k$-element set to an $n$-element set. In particular, we give a new combinatorial formula for the spherical functions of the Gelfand pair $(S_k \times S_n, \text{diag}(S_k) \times S_{n-k})$. We use this combinatorial formula to give new Delsarte linear programming bounds on the size of codes over injections., Comment: 18 pages

A construction of Alon and Krivelevich gives highly pseudorandom $K_k$-free graphs on $n$ vertices with edge density equal to $\Theta(n^{-1/(k -2)})$. In this short note we improve their result by constructing an infinite family of highly pseudorandom $K_k$-free graphs with a higher edge density of $\Theta(n^{-1/(k - 1)})$., Comment: minor edits; accepted for publication by Combinatorica

We show that the strongly regular graph on non-isotropic points of one type of the polar spaces of type $U(n, 2)$, $O(n, 3)$, $O(n, 5)$, $O^+(n, 3)$, and $O^-(n, 3)$ are not determined by its parameters for $n \geq 6$. We prove this by using a variation of Godsil-McKay switching recently described by Wang, Qiu, and Hu. This also results in a new, shorter proof of a previous result of the first author which showed that the collinearity graph of a polar space is not determined by its spectrum. The same switching gives a linear algebra explanation for the construction of a large number of non-isomorphic designs., Comment: 13 pages, accepted in Linear Algebra and Its Applications

We determine the independence number of the orthogonality graph on $2^k$-dimensional hypercubes. This answers a question by Galliard from 2001 which is motivated by a problem in quantum information theory. Our method is a modification of a rank argument due to Frankl who showed the analogous result for $4p^k$-dimensional hypercubes, where $p$ is an odd prime., Comment: 3 pages, accepted by Combinatorica, fixed a minor typo spotted by Peter Sin

We show that $A_2(7,4) \leq 388$ and, more generally, $A_q(7,4) \leq (q^2-q+1)[7]_q + q^4 - 2q^3 + 3q^2 - 4q + 4$ by semidefinite programming for $q \leq 101$. Furthermore, we extend results by Bachoc et al. on SDP bounds for $A_2(n,d)$, where $d$ is odd and $n$ is small, to $A_q(n,d)$ for small $q$ and small $n$.

We obtain a new weak Hilton-Milner type result for intersecting families of $k$-spaces in $\mathbb{F}_q^{2k}$, which improves several known results. In particular the chromatic number of the $q$-Kneser graph $qK_{n:k}$ was previously known for $n > 2k$ (except for $n=2k+1$ and $q=2$) or $k < q \log q - q$. Our result determines the chromatic number of $qK_{2k:k}$ for $q \geq 5$, so that the only remaining open cases are $(n, k) = (2k, k)$ with $q \in \{ 2, 3, 4 \}$ and $(n, k) = (2k+1, k)$ with $q = 2$., Comment: 9 pages, few typos corrected

We show that a Boolean degree $d$ function on the slice $\binom{[n]}{k} = \{ (x_1,\ldots,x_n) \in \{0,1\} : \sum_{i=1}^n x_i = k \}$ is a junta, assuming that $k,n-k$ are large enough. This generalizes a classical result of Nisan and Szegedy on the hypercube. Moreover, we show that the maximum number of coordinates that a Boolean degree $d$ function can depend on is the same on the slice and the hypercube., Comment: 10 pages

We investigate Boolean degree 1 functions for several classical association schemes, including Johnson graphs, Grassmann graphs, graphs from polar spaces, and bilinear forms graphs, as well as some other domains such as multislices (Young subgroups of the symmetric group). In some settings, Boolean degree 1 functions are also known as \textit{completely regular strength 0 codes of covering radius 1}, \textit{Cameron--Liebler line classes}, and \textit{tight sets}. We classify all Boolean degree $1$ functions on the multislice. On the Grassmann scheme $J_q(n, k)$ we show that all Boolean degree $1$ functions are trivial for $n \geq 5$, $k, n-k \geq 2$ and $q \in \{ 2, 3, 4, 5 \}$, and that for general $q$, the problem can be reduced to classifying all Boolean degree $1$ functions on $J_q(n, 2)$. We also consider polar spaces and the bilinear forms graphs, giving evidence that all Boolean degree $1$ functions are trivial for appropriate choices of the parameters., Comment: 22 pages; accepted by JCTA; corrected Conjecture 6.1

We call a family of sets intersecting, if any two sets in the family intersect. In this paper we investigate intersecting families $\mathcal{F}$ of $k$-element subsets of $[n]:=\{1,\ldots, n\},$ such that every element of $[n]$ lies in the same (or approximately the same) number of members of $\mathcal{F}$. In particular, we show that we can guarantee $|\mathcal{F}| = o({n-1\choose k-1})$ if and only if $k=o(n)$., Comment: 15 pages, accepted version

We prove a conjecture by Van Dam and Sotirov on the smallest eigenvalue of (distance-$j$) Hamming graphs and a conjecture by Karloff on the smallest eigenvalue of (distance-$j$) Johnson graphs. More generally, we study the smallest eigenvalue and the second largest eigenvalue in absolute value of the graphs of the relations of classical $P$- and $Q$-polynomial association schemes., Comment: 30 pages, accepted by JCTB

A $q$-analogue of a $t$-design is a set $S$ of subspaces (of dimension $k$) of a finite vector space $V$ over a field of order $q$ such that each $t$ subspace is contained in a constant $\lambda$ number of elements of $S$. The smallest nontrivial feasible parameters occur when $V$ has dimension $7$, $t=2$, $q=2$, and $k=3$; which is the $q$-analogue of a $2$-$(7,3,1)$ design, the Fano plane. The existence of the binary $q$-analogue of the Fano plane has yet to be resolved, and it was shown by Kiermaier et al. (2016) that such a configuration must have an automorphism group of order at most $2$. We show that the binary $q$-analogue of the Fano plane has a trivial automorphism group., Comment: A crucial mistake in the computations was pointed out to us

We investigate the Ramsey numbers $r(I_m, L_n)$ which is the minimal natural number $k$ such that every oriented graph on $k$ vertices contains either an independent set of size $m$ or a transitive tournament on $n$ vertices. Apart from the finitary combinatorial interest, these Ramsey numbers are of interest to set theorists since it is known that $r(\omega m, n) = \omega r(I_m, L_n)$, where $\omega$ is the lowest transfinite ordinal number, and $r(\kappa m, n) = \kappa r(I_m, L_n)$ for all initial ordinals $\kappa$. Continuing the research by Bermond from 1974 who did show $r(I_3, L_3) = 9$, we prove $r(I_4, L_3) = 15$ and $r(I_5, L_3) = 23$. The upper bounds for both the estimates above are obtained by improving the upper bound of $m^2$ on $r(I_m, L_3)$ due to Larson and Mitchell (1997) to $m^2 - m + 3$. Additionally, we provide asymptotic upper bounds on $r(I_m, L_n)$ for all $n \geq 3$. In particular, we show that $r(I_m, L_3) \in \Theta(m^2 / \log m)$., Comment: 20 pages, incorporated many reviewer's comments

We investigate strongly regular graphs for which Hoffman's ratio bound and Cvetcovi\'{c}'s inertia bound are equal. This means that $ve^- = m^-(e^- - k)$, where $v$ is the number of vertices, $k$ is the regularity, $e^-$ is the smallest eigenvalue, and $m^-$ is the multiplicity of $e^-$. We show that Delsarte cocliques do not exist for all Taylor's $2$-graphs and for point graphs of generalized quadrangles of order $(q,q^2-q)$ for infinitely many $q$. For cases where equality may hold, we show that for nearly all parameter sets, there are at most two Delsarte cocliques., Comment: 11 pages, accepted by the Journal of Combinatorial Designs plus several minor corrections

In this paper a new parameter for hypergraphs called hypergraph infection is defined. This concept generalizes zero forcing in graphs to hypergraphs. The exact value of the infection number of complete and complete bipartite hypergraphs is determined. A formula for the infection number for interval hypergraphs and several families of cyclic hypergraphs is given. The value of the infection number for a hypergraph whose edges form a symmetric t-design is given, and bounds are determined for a hypergraph whose edges are a t-design. Finally, the infection number for several hypergraph products and line graphs are considered., Comment: 23 pages

We give a computer-based proof for the non-existence of distance-$2$ ovoids in the dual split Cayley hexagon $\mathsf{H}(4)^D$. Furthermore, we give upper bounds on partial distance-$2$ ovoids of $\mathsf{H}(q)^D$ for $q \in \{2, 4\}$., Comment: 10 pages

In this paper we give a proof of the Manickam-Mikl\'os-Singhi (MMS) conjecture for some partial geometries. Specifically, we give a condition on partial geometries which implies that the MMS conjecture holds. Further, several specific partial geometries that are counter-examples to the conjecture are described., Comment: 15 pages, accepted in DCC, corrected ordering of the Ms in MMS in title and abstract

We describe a general construction of strongly regular graphs from the collinearity graph of a finite classical polar spaces of rank at least $3$ over a finite field of order $q$. We show that these graphs are non-isomorphic to the collinearity graphs and have the same parameters. To our knowledge for most of these parameters these graphs are new as the collinearity graphs were the only known examples., Comment: 11 pages, older version published in the Journal of Algebraic Combinatorics, fixed a typo in Lemma 3.5 and added a comment due to Kantor

Two results are obtained that give upper bounds on partial spreads and partial ovoids respectively. The first result is that the size of a partial spread of the Hermitian polar space $\mathsf{H}(3, q^2)$ is at most $\left(\frac{2p^3+p}{3} \right)^t+1$, where $q=p^t$, $p$ is a prime. For fixed $p$ this bound is in $o(q^3)$, which is asymptotically better than the previous best known bound of $(q^3+q+2)/2$. Similar bounds for partial spreads of $\mathsf{H}(2d-1, q^2)$, $d$ even, are given. The second result is that the size of a partial ovoid of the Ree-Tits octagon $\mathsf{O}(2^t)$ is at most $26^t+1$. This bound, in particular, shows that the Ree-Tits octagon $\mathsf{O}(2^t)$ does not have an ovoid., Comment: 8 pages, corrected a false claim on collineations in the Ree-Tits octagon, see arXiv:2002.07977v1 [math.GR], Remark 2.3

We investigate $\{0, 1, \ldots, t \}$-cliques of generators on dual polar graphs of finite classical polar spaces of rank $d$. These cliques are also known as Erd\H{o}s-Ko-Rado sets in polar spaces of generators with pairwise intersections in at most codimension $t$. Our main result is that we classify all such cliques of maximum size for $t \leq \sqrt{8d/5}-2$ if $q \geq 3$, and $t \leq \sqrt{8d/9}-2$ if $q = 2$. We have the following byproducts. (a) For $q \geq 3$ we provide estimates of Hoffman's bound on these $\{0, 1, \ldots, t \}$-cliques for all $t$. (b) For $q \geq 3$ we determine the largest, second largest, and smallest eigenvalue of the graphs which have the generators of a polar space as vertices and where two generators are adjacent if and only if they meet in codimension at least $t+1$. Furthermore, we provide nice explicit formulas for all eigenvalues of these graphs. (c) We provide upper bounds on the size of the second largest maximal $\{0, 1, \ldots, t \}$-cliques for some $t$., Comment: 30 pages including appendix

We provide new proofs for the non-existence of ovoids in hyperbolic spaces of rank at least four in even characteristic, and for the Hermitian polar space $\mathsf{H}(5, 4)$. We also improve the results of A. Klein on the non-existence of ovoids of Hermitian spaces and hyperbolic quadrics., Comment: 12 pages

A cross-intersecting Erd\H{o}s-Ko-Rado set of generators of a finite classical polar space is a pair $(Y, Z)$ of sets of generators such that all $y \in Y$ and $z \in Z$ intersect in at least a point. We provide upper bounds on $|Y| \cdot |Z|$ and classify the cross-intersecting Erd\H{o}s-Ko-Rado sets of maximum size with respect to $|Y| \cdot |Z|$ for all polar spaces except Hermitian polar spaces in odd projective dimension.

Let $V$ be an $n$-dimensional vector space over a finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$. Define a real-valued weight function on the $1$-dimensional vector spaces of $V$ such that the sum of all weights is zero. Let the weight of a subspace $S$ be the sum of the weights of the $1$-dimensional subspaces contained in $S$. In 1988 Manickam and Singhi conjectured that if $n \geq 4k$, then the number of $k$-dimensional subspaces with nonnegative weight is at least the number of $k$-dimensional subspaces on a fixed $1$-dimensional subspace. Recently, Chowdhury, Huang, Sarkis, Shahriari, and Sudakov proved the conjecture of Manickam and Singhi for $n \geq 3k$. We modify the technique used by Chowdhury et al. to prove the conjecture for $n \geq 2k$ if $q$ is large. Furthermore, if equality holds and $n \geq 2k+1$, then the set of $k$-dimensional subspaces with nonnegative weight is the set of all $k$-dimensional subspaces on a fixed $1$-dimensional subspace., Comment: 15 pages; this version fixes typos and some minor mistakes, also some proofs got a bit more explicit for an easier understanding

We prove that a non-empty set L of at most q^5+q^4+q^3+q^2+q+1 lines of PG(n, q) with the properties that (1) every point of PG(n,q) is incident with either 0 or q+1 elements of L, (2) every plane plane of PG(n, q) is incident with either 0, 1 or q+1 elements of L, (3) every solid of PG(n, q) is incident with either 0, 1, q+1 or 2q+1 elements of L, and (4) every 4-dimensional subspace of PG(n, q) is incident with at most q^3-q^2+4q elements of L, is necessarily the set of lines of a split Cayley hexagon H(q) naturally embedded in PG(6, q).