Maximal Partial Spreads of Polar Spaces

Some constructions of maximal partial spreads of finite classical polar spaces are provided. In particular we show that, for $n \ge 1$, $\mathcal{H}(4n-1,q^2)$ has a maximal partial spread of size $q^{2n}+1$, $\mathcal{H}(4n+1,q^2)$ has a maximal partial spread of size $q^{2n+1}+1$ and, for $n \ge 2$, $\mathcal{Q}^+(4n-1,q)$, $\mathcal{Q}(4n-2,q)$, $\mathcal{W}(4n-1,q)$, $q$ even, $\mathcal{W}(4n-3,q)$, $q$ even, have a maximal partial spread of size $q^n+1$.

Maximal Strictly Partial Spreads

Let ∑ = PG(3, q) denote 3-dimensional projective space over GF(q). A partial spread of ∑ is a collection W of pairwise skew lines in ∑. W is said to be maximal if it is not properly contained in any other partial spread. If every point of ∑ is contained in some line of W, then W is called a spread. Since every spread of PG(3, q) consists of q2 + 1 lines, the deficiency of a partial spread W is defined to be the number d = q2 + 1 — |W|. A maximal partial spread of ∑ which is not a spread is called a maximal strictly partial spread (msp spread) of ∑.