Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 October 2018
We characterize Hermitian cones among the surfaces of degree $q+1$ of
$\text{PG}(3,q^{2})$ by their intersection numbers with planes. We then use this result and provide a characterization of nonsingular Hermitian varieties of
$\text{PG}(4,q^{2})$ among quasi-Hermitian ones.
The author was supported by the Italian National Group for Algebraic and Geometric Structures and their Applications (GNSAGA–INdAM).