On the cylinder conjecture

In this paper, we associate a weight function with a set of points satisfying the conditions of the cylinder conjecture. Then we derive properties of this weight function using the Rédei polynomial of the point set. Using additional assumptions on the number of non-determined directions, together with an exhaustive computer search for weight functions satisfying particular properties, we prove a relaxed version of the cylinder conjecture for p≤ 13. This result also slightly refines a result of Sziklai on point sets in AG (3 , p).