Nikodym set size conjecture for finite fields

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Let d≥3d\geq 3, let Fqd\mathbb{F}_q^d be the dd-dimensional vector space over the finite field with qq elements, and let a weak Nikodym set be a subset of Fqd\mathbb{F}_q^d containing, for every point x∈Fqdx\in\mathbb{F}_q^d, all but possibly xx of the points on some line through xx. Nikodym set size conjecture. For any d≥3d\geq 3, there exists a constant Cd>0C_d>0 such that every weak Nikodym set N⊆FqdN\subseteq\mathbb{F}_q^d satisfies

∣N∣≥qd−Cdqd−1d.|N|\geq q^d-C_dq^{d-\frac{1}{d}}.

The conjecture strengthens the known lower bounds for finite-field Nikodym sets and is motivated by the fact that all known constructions have size (1−od;q→∞(1))qd(1-o_{d;q\to\infty}(1))q^d.

References

Primary source

Ting-Wei Chao and Hung-Hsun Hans Yu, “Finite field Nikodym problem for spread line sets”, arXiv:2601.20851 (2026).

Additional references

2 papers in this index state this conjecture (2016–2026). The statement above is taken from the most recent of them; the others are arXiv:1609.01048.

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