An ovoid in a 3-dimensional projective geometry PG(3,
q)
over the field GF(q), where q is a prime power, is a
set of
q2+1 points no three of which are collinear.
Because of their connections with other combinatorial structures ovoids
are of
interest to mathematicians in a variety of fields; for from an ovoid one
can construct
an inversive plane [3], a generalised quadrangle
[11], and if q is even, a translation
plane [13]. In fact the only known finite inversive
planes are those arising from ovoids
in projective spaces (see [2]). Moreover, there are
only two classes of ovoids known,
namely the elliptic quadric and, for q even and not a square,
the Tits ovoids; these
will be described in the next section. If the field order q is
odd, then it was shown by
Barlotti and Panella (see [3, 1.4.50]) that the only
ovoids are the elliptic quadrics. This
paper contains a geometrical characterisation of the two known classes
of ovoids.