In this article we provide another method for obtaining explicit formulas yielding counts of secant planes to a projective curve. We formulate the problem in terms of Segre classes of suitable bundles over the symmetric product of the curve and take advantage of the result of Ellingsrud, Göttsche, and Lehn concerning the structure of integrals of polynomials in Chern classes of tautological bundles over Hilbert schemes of points. We use this to set up a recursion starting from the easy to compute case of the projective line.
We determine set theoretic defining equations for the third secant variety of the Segre product of $n$ projective spaces, and from the proof of the main statement we derive an upper bound for the degrees of these equations.
In this paper we present a way of computing the degree of the secant (resp., tangent) variety of a smooth projective surface, under the assumption that the divisor giving the embedding in the projective space is $3$-very ample. This method exploits the link between these varieties and the Hilbert scheme $0$-dimensional subschemes of length $2$ of the surface.
We describe a computational proof that the fifth secant variety of the Segre product of five copies of the projective line is a codimension 2 complete intersection of equations of degree 6 and 16. Our computations rely on pseudo-randomness, and numerical accuracy, so parts of our proof are only valid "with high probability".
To each subvariety $X$ in projective $n$-space of codimension $m$ we associate an integer sequence of length $m + 1$ from $1$ to the degree of $X$ recording the maximal cardinalities of finite, reduced intersections of $X$ with linear subvarieties. We call this the sequence of secant indices of $X$. Similar numbers have been studied independently with the aim of classifying subvarieties with extremal secant spaces. Our focus in this note is the study of the combinatorial properties that the secant indices satisfy collectively. We show these sequences are strictly increasing for nondegenerate s…
In recent years, the equations defining secant varieties and their syzygies have attracted considerable attention. The purpose of the present paper is to conduct a thorough study on secant varieties of curves by settling several conjectures and revealing interaction between singularities and syzygies. The main results assert that if the degree of the embedding line bundle of a nonsingular curve of genus $g$ is greater than $2g+2k+p$ for nonnegative integers $k$ and $p$, then the $k$-th secant variety of the curve has normal Du Bois singularities, is arithmetically Cohen--Macaulay, and satisfie…
Under an explicit positivity condition, we show the first secant variety of a linearly normal smooth variety is projectively normal, give results on the regularity of the ideal of the secant variety, and give conditions on the variety that are equivalent to the secant variety being arithmetically Cohen-Macaulay. Under this same condition, we then show that if $X$ satisfies $N_{p+2\dim(X)}$, then the secant variety satisfies $N_{3,p}$.
We show that the d-th secant variety of a projective curve of genus g imbedded in projective space by a complete linear system of degree 2g-2+m, with m at least 2d+3, does not contain linear spaces of dimension bigger than d-1, and that the only linear subspaces of dimension d-1 contained in it are the obvious ones.
For a smooth curve of genus $g$ embedded by a line bundle of degree at least $2g+3$ we show that the ideal sheaf of the secant variety is 5-regular. This bound is sharp with respect to both the degree of the embedding and the bound on the regularity. Further, we show that the secant variety is projectively normal for the generic embedding of degree at least $2g+3$. We also give a conjectural description of the resolutions of the ideals of higher secant varieties.
In this paper, we show that the secant variety to a smooth projective variety embedded by a sufficiently positive line bundle is normal. As an application, we deduce that the secant variety to a general canonical curve of genus at least 7 is normal.
Common Real Secants to Pairs of Real Twisted Cubic Curves
University of Agriculture, Faisalabad（费萨拉巴德农业大学）；Michigan State University（密歇根州立大学）；University of Notre Dame（圣母大学）；Texas State University（德州州立大学）；Grand Valley State University（大谷州立大学）；University of California, Santa Cruz（加州大学圣克鲁兹分校）
In this paper, we study how simple linear projections of some projective varieties behave when the projection center runs through the ambient space. More precisely, let $X \subset ¶^r$ be a projective variety satisfying Green-Lazarsfeld's property $N_p$ for some $p \geq 2$, $q \in ¶^r$ a closed point outside of $X$, and $X_q := π_q (X) \subset ¶^{r-1}$ the projected image of $X$ from $q$. First, it is shown that the secant locus $Σ_q (X)$ of $X$ with respect to $q$, i.e. the set of all points on $X$ spanning secant lines passing through $q$, is either empty or a quadric in a subspace of $¶^r$.…
The Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity of varieties of degree r and dimension n in the r-dimensional projective space that have an extremal secant line, is at least d-r+n+1. We classify these varieties and show that their regularity is exactly d-r+n+1, as predicted by the regularity conjecture.
Each Scorza variety and its secant varieties in the ambient projective space are identified, in the realm of singular Poisson-Kaehler geometry, in terms of projectivizations of holomorphic nilpotent orbits in suitable Lie algebras of hermitian type, the holomorphic nilpotent orbits, in turn, being affine varieties. The ambient projective space acquires an exotic Kaehler structure, the closed stratum being the Scorza variety and the closures of the higher strata its secant varieties. In this fashion, the secant varieties become exotic projective varieties. In the rank 3 case, the four regular S…
In this paper we prove, using a refinement of Terracini's Lemma, a sharp lower bound for the degree of (higher) secant varieties to a given projective variety, which extends the well known lower bound for the degree of a variety in terms of its dimension and codimension in projective space. Moreover we study varieties for which the bound is attained proving some general properties related to tangential projections, e.g. these varieties are rational. In particular we completely classify surfaces (and curves) for which the bound is attained. It turns out that these surfaces enjoy some maximality…
We study the secant varieties of the Veronese varieties and of Veronese reembeddings of a smooth projective variety. We give some conditions, under which these secant varieties are set-theoretically cut out by determinantal equations. More precisely, they are given by minors of a catalecticant matrix. These conditions include the case when the dimension of the projective variety is at most 3 and the degree of reembedding is sufficiently high. This gives a positive answer to a set-theoretic version of a question of Eisenbud in dimension at most 3. For dimension four and higher we produce plenty…
Take a smooth, connected and non-degenerate projective curve $X\subset \mathbb {P}^r$, $r\ge 2b+2\ge 6$, defined over an algebraically closed field with characteristic $0$ and let $σ_b(X)$ be the $b$-secant variety of $X$. We prove that the $X$-rank of $q$ is at least $b+1$ for a non-empty codimension $1$ locally closed subset of $σ_b(X)$.
For a smooth projective curve, the cycles of subordinate or, more generally, secant divisors to a given linear series are among some of the most studied objects in classical enumerative geometry. We consider the intersection of two such cycles corresponding to secant divisors of two different linear series on the same curve and investigate the validity of the enumerative formulas counting the number of divisors in the intersection. We study some interesting cases, with unexpected transversality properties, and establish a general method to verify when this intersection is empty.
Let $X_P$ be a smooth projective toric variety of dimension $n$ embedded in $\PP^r$ using all of the lattice points of the polytope $P$. We compute the dimension and degree of the secant variety $\Sec X_P$. We also give explicit formulas in dimensions 2 and 3 and obtain partial results for the projective varieties $X_A$ embedded using a set of lattice points $A \subset P\cap\ZZ^n$ containing the vertices of $P$ and their nearest neighbors.
On a special line bundle $L$ on a projective curve $C$ we introduce a geometric condition called $(Δ_q)$. When $L=K_C$ this condition implies gon$(C) \ge q+2$. For an arbitrary special $L$ we show that $(Δ_3)$ implies that $L$ has the well-known property $(M_3)$, generalizing a similar result proved by Voisin in the case $L=K_C$.
Given a rank $r$ stable bundle over a smooth irreducible projective curve $C,$ there is an associated rank $2r$ bundle over $S^2(C),$ the second symmetric power of $C.$ In this article we study the stability of this bundle. As a consequence we get an immersion from the moduli space of stable bundles over $C$ to the associated moduli space of stable bundles over $S^2(C).$
For an irreducible projective variety X, we study the family of h-planes contained in the secant variety Sec_k(X), for 0<h<k. These families have an expected dimension and we study varieties for which the expected dimension is not attained; for these varieties, making general consecutive projections to lower dimensional spaces, we do not get the expected singularities. In particular, we examine the family G of lines sitting in 3-secant planes to a surface S. We show that the actual dimension of G is equal to the expected dimension unless S is a cone or a rational normal scroll of degree 4 in P…
We study the projective behavior, mainly with respect to osculating spaces and secant varieties, of Lagrangian Grassmannians and Spinor varieties. We prove that these varieties have osculating dimension smaller than expected. Furthermore, we give numerical conditions ensuring the non secant defectivity of Lagrangian Grassmannians in their Plücker embedding and of Spinor varieties in both their Plücker and Spinor embeddings.
We relate the geometry of curves to the notion of hyperbolicity in real algebraic geometry. A hyperbolic variety is a real algebraic variety that (in particular) admits a real fibered morphism to a projective space whose dimension is equal to the dimension of the variety. We study hyperbolic varieties with a special interest in the case of hypersurfaces that admit a real algebraic ruling. The central part of the paper is concerned with secant varieties of real algebraic curves where the real locus has the maximal number of connected components, which is determined by the genus of the curve. Fo…
We study the relationship between the equations defining a projective variety and properties of its secant varieties. In particular, we use information about the syzygies among the defining equations to derive smoothness and normality statements about Sec(X) and also to obtain information about linear systems on the blow up of projective space along a variety X. We use these results to geometrically construct, for varieties of arbitrary dimension, a flip first described in the case of curves by M. Thaddeus via Geometric Invariant Theory, and to give some examples of vanishing theorems for the …
We give simple geometric proofs of Aprodu-Farkas-Papadima-Raicu-Weyman's theorem on syzygies of tangent developable surfaces of rational normal curves and Raicu-Sam's result on syzygies of K3 carpets. As a consequence, we obtain a quick proof of Green's conjecture for general curves of genus $g$ over an algebraically closed field $\mathbf{k}$ with $\operatorname{char}(\mathbf{k}) = 0$ or $\operatorname{char}(\mathbf{k}) \geq \lfloor (g-1)/2 \rfloor$. We also show the arithmetic normality of tangent developable surfaces of arbitrary smooth projective curves of large degree.
We study curves consisting of unions of projective lines whose intersections are given by graphs. Under suitable hypotheses on the graph, these so-called \emph{graph curves} can be embedded in projective space as line arrangements. We discuss property $N_p$ for these embeddings and are able to produce products of linear forms that generate the ideal in certain cases. We also briefly discuss questions regarding the higher-dimensional subspace arrangements obtained by taking the secant varieties of graph curves.
The first secant variety of a projective monomial curve is a threefold with an action by a one-dimensional torus. Its tropicalization is a three-dimensional fan with a one-dimensional lineality space, so the tropical threefold is represented by a balanced graph. Our main result is an explicit construction of that graph. As a consequence, we obtain algorithms to effectively compute the multidegree and Chow polytope of an arbitrary projective monomial curve. This generalizes an earlier degree formula due to Ranestad. The combinatorics underlying our construction is rather delicate, and it is bas…
Given an arithmetic surface and a positive hermitian line bundle over it, we bound the successive minima of the lattice of global sections of this line bundle. Our method combines a result of C.Voisin on secant varieties of projective curves with previous work by the author on the arithmetic analog of the Kodaira vanishing theorem. The paper also includes a result of A.Granville on the divisibility properties of binomial coefficients in a given line of Pascal's triangle.
For a smooth projective curve, the cycles of e-secant k-planes are among the most studied objects in classical enumerative geometry and there are well-known formulas due to Castelnuovo, Cayley and MacDonald concerning them. Despite various attempts, surprisingly little is known about the enumerative validity of such formulas. The aim of this paper is to completely clarify this problem in the case of the generic curve C of given genus. Using degeneration techniques and a few facts about the birational geometry of moduli spaces of stable pointed curves we determine precisely under which conditio…
We prove that a product of $m>5$ copies of $\PP^1$, embedded in the projective space $\PP^r$ by the standard Segre embedding, is $k$-identifiable (i.e. a general point of the secant variety $S^k(X)$ is contained in only one $(k+1)$-secant $k$-space), for all $k$ such that $k+1\leq 2^{m-1}/m$.
A projective variety $X\subset\mathbb{P}^N$ is $h$-identifiable if the generic element in its $h$-secant variety uniquely determines $h$ points on $X$. In this paper we propose an entirely new approach to study identifiability, connecting it to the notion of secant defect. In this way we are able to improve all known bounds on identifiability. In particular we give optimal bounds for some Segre and Segre-Veronese varieties and provide the first identifiability statements for Grassmann varieties.
In this paper, we give three bases for the cohomology groups of the Hilbert scheme of two points on projective space. Then, we use these bases to compute all effective and nef cones of higher codimensional cycles on the Hilbert scheme. Next, we compute the class in one of these bases of the Chern classes of tautological bundles coming from line bundles. Finally, we provide an application of these results to the degrees of secant varieties of complete intersections.
In this paper we prove the Eisenbud-Goto conjecture for connected curves. We also investigate the structure of connected curves for which this bound is optimal. In particular, we construct connected curves of arbitrarily high degree in projective 4-space having maximal regularity, but no extremal secants. We also show that any connected curve in projective 3-space of degree at least 5 that has no linear components and has maximal regularity has an extremal secant.
Let $\mathbb X\subset\mathbb P(V)$ be a projective variety, which is not contained in a hyperplane. Then every vector $v$ in $V$ can be written as a sum of vectors from the affine cone $X$ over $\mathbb X$. The minimal number of summands in such a sum is called the rank of $v$. The set of vectors of rank $r$ is denoted by $X_r$ and its projective image by $\mathbb X_r$. The r-th secant variety of $X$ is defined $σ_r(\mathbb X):=\bar{\sqcup_{s\le r}\mathbb X_s}$; it is called tame if $σ_r(\mathbb X)=\sqcup_{s\le r} \mathbb X_s$ and wild if the closure contains elements of higher rank. In this p…
In this paper we prove an infinitesimal version of the classical Terracini Lemma for 3--secant planes to a variety. Precisely we prove that if $X\subseteq \PP^r$ is an irreducible, non--degenerate, projective complex variety of dimension $n$ with $r\geq 3n+2$, such that the variety of osculating planes to curves in $X$ has the expected dimension $3n$ and for every $0$--dimensional, curvilinear scheme $γ$ of length 3 contained in $X$ the family of hyperplanes sections of $X$ which are singular along $γ$ has dimension larger that $r-3(n+1)$, then $X$ is $2$--secant defective.
We prove that the generic element of the fifth secant variety $σ_5(Gr(\mathbb{P}^2,\mathbb{P}^9)) \subset \mathbb{P}(\bigwedge^3 \mathbb{C}^{10})$ of the Grassmannian of planes of $\mathbb{P}^9$ has exactly two decompositions as a sum of five projective classes of decomposable skew-symmetric tensors. {We show that this, {together with $Gr(\mathbb{P}^3, \mathbb{P}^8)$, is the only non-identifiable case} among the non-defective secant varieties $σ_s(Gr(\mathbb{P}^k, \mathbb{P}^n))$ for any $n<14$. In the same range for $n$, we classify all the weakly defective and all tangentially weakly defecti…
We classify all irreducible projective threefolds $X$ which are $k$-defective, i.e. some $k$-secant variety of $X$ has dimension less than the expected value. This results extends the classical Scorza's classification of the case $k=1$.
The purpose of this paper is to relate the variety parameterizing completely decomposable homogeneous polynomials of degree $d$ in $n+1$ variables on an algebraically closed field, called $\Split_{d}(\PP n)$, with the Grassmannian of $n-1$ dimensional projective subspaces of $\PP {n+d-1}$. We compute the dimension of some secant varieties to $\Split_{d}(\PP n)$ and find a counterexample to a conjecture that wanted its dimension related to the one of the secant variety to $\GG (n-1, n+d-1)$. Moreover by using an invariant embedding of the Veronse variety into the Plücker space, then we are able…
We study projective surfaces $X \subset \mathbb{P}^r$ (with $r \geq 5$) of maximal sectional regularity and degree $d > r$, hence surfaces for which the Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity $\reg(C)$ of a general hyperplane section curve $C = X \cap \mathbb{P}^{r-1}$ takes the maximally possible value $d-r+3$. We show that each of these surfaces is either a cone over a curve $C \subset \mathbb{P}^{r-1}$ of maximal regularity or else a birational outer linear projection of a smooth rational surface scroll $\widetilde{X} \subset \mathbb{P}^{d+1}$. We prove that the Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity of th…
