In this note we consider multiples aD, where D is a divisor of the blow-up of P^n along points in general position which appears in the Alexander and Hirschowitz list of Veronese embeddings having defective secant varieties. In particular we show that there is such a D with h^1(X,D) > 0 and h^1(X,2D) = 0.
We give an almost asymptotically sharp bound for the non secant defectiveness and identifiability of Segre-Veronese varieties. We also provide new examples of defective Segre-Veronese varieties.
We prove the existence of defective secant varieties of three-factor and four-factor Segre-Veronese varieties embedded in certain multi-degree. These defective secant varieties were previously unknown and are of importance in the classification of defective secant varieties of Segre-Veronese varieties with three or more factors.
This paper explores the dimensions of higher secant varieties to Segre-Veronese varieties. The main goal of this paper is to introduce two different inductive techniques. These techniques enable one to reduce the computation of the dimension of the secant variety in a high dimensional case to the computation of the dimensions of secant varieties in low dimensional cases. As an application of these inductive approaches, we will prove non-defectivity of secant varieties of certain two-factor Segre-Veronese varieties. We also use these methods to give a complete classification of defective s-th S…
Let $X_{m,n}$ be the Segre-Veronese variety $\mathbb{P}^m \times \mathbb{P}^n$ embedded by the morphism given by $\mathcal{O}(1,2)$. In this paper, we provide two functions $\underline{s}(m,n)\le \bar{s}(m,n)$ such that the $s^{\mathrm{th}}$ secant variety of $X_{m,n}$ has the expected dimension if $s \leq \underline{s}(m,n)$ or $ \bar{s}(m,n) \leq s$. We also present a conjecturally complete list of defective secant varieties of such Segre-Veronese varieties.
We study the dimension of the higher secant varieties $X^s$ of ${\Bbb X} = {\Bbb P}^{n_1}\times ...\times {\Bbb P}^{n_t}$ embedded the morphism given by ${\cal O}_{\Bbb X}({a_1,...,a_t})$. We call it a {\it Segre-Veronese variety} and the embedding a {\it Segre-Veronese embedding}. In several cases (e.g. for 3 factors {\Bbb P}^{1}, or when $s$ is small) we show that $X^s$ has the expected dimension except for a few cases. A list of examples of defective $X^s$'s is given.
We give a partial "quasi-stratification" of the secant varieties of the order $d$ Veronese variety $X_{m,d}$ of $\mathbb {P}^m$. It covers the set $σ_t(X_{m,d})^{\dagger}$ of all points lying on the linear span of curvilinear subschemes of $X_{m,d}$, but two "quasi-strata" may overlap. For low border rank two different "quasi-strata" are disjoint and we compute the symmetric rank of their elements. Our tool is the Hilbert schemes of curvilinear subschemes of Veronese varieties. To get a stratification we attach to each $P\in σ_t(X_{m,d})^{\dagger}$ the minimal label of a quasi-stratum containi…
New classes of modules of equations for secant varieties of Veronese varieties are defined using representation theory and geometry. Some old modules of equations (catalecticant minors) are revisited to determine when they are sufficient to give scheme-theoretic defining equations. An algorithm to decompose a general ternary quintic as the sum of seven fifth powers is given as an illustration of our methods. Our new equations and results about them are put into a larger context by introducing vector bundle techniques for finding equations of secant varieties in general. We include a few homoge…
In this paper we prove some general results on secant defective varieties. Then we focus on the 4--dimensional case and we give the full classification of secant defective 4--folds. This paper has been inspired by classical work by G. Scorza,
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…
We consider the varieties $O_{k,n.d}$ of the k-osculating spaces to the Veronese varieties, the $d-$uple embeddings of $\PP n$; we study the dimension of their higher secant varieties. Via inverse systems (apolarity) and the study of certain spaces of forms we are able, in several cases, to determine whether those secant varieties are defective or not.
In this paper we study singularities of third secant varieties of Veronese embedding $v_d(\mathbb{P}^n)$, which corresponds to the variety of symmetric tensors of border rank at most three in $(\mathbb{C}^{n+1})^{\otimes d}$.
We define new classes of modules of equations for secant varieties of Veronese varieties using representation theory and geometry. We also revisit some old modules of equations (catalecticant minors) to determine when they are sufficient to give scheme-theoretic defining equations.
We prove a conjecture stated by Catalisano, Geramita, and Gimigliano in 2002, which claims that the secant varieties of tangential varieties to the $d$th Veronese embedding of the projective $n$-space $\mathbb{P}^n$ have the expected dimension, modulo a few well-known exceptions. As Bernardi, Catalisano, Gimigliano, and Idá demonstrated that the proof of this conjecture may be reduced to the case of cubics, i.e., $d=3$, the main contribution of this work is the resolution of this base case. The proposed proof proceeds by induction on the dimension $n$ of the projective space via a specializati…
Motivated by the study of the secant variety of the Segre-Veronese variety we propose a general framework to analyze properties of the secant varieties of toric embeddings of affine spaces defined by simplicial complexes. We prove that every such secant is toric, which gives a way to use combinatorial tools to study singularities. We focus on the Segre-Veronese variety for which we completely classify their secants that give Gorenstein or $\mathbb Q$-Gorenstein varieties. We conclude providing the explicit description of the singular locus.
Let $SV^{\pmb n}_{\pmb d}$ be the Segre-Veronese given as the image of the embedding induced by the line bundle $\mathcal{O}_{\mathbb{P}^{n_1}\times\dots\times\mathbb{P}^{n_r}}(d_1,\dots, d_r)$. We prove that asymptotically $SV^{\pmb n}_{\pmb d}$ is not $h$-defective for $h\leq n_1^{\lfloor \log_2(d-1)\rfloor}$.
We prove that the ideal of the variety of secant lines to a Segre--Veronese variety is generated in degree three by minors of flattenings. In the special case of a Segre variety this was conjectured by Garcia, Stillman and Sturmfels, inspired by work on algebraic statistics, as well as by Pachter and Sturmfels, inspired by work on phylogenetic inference. In addition, we describe the decomposition of the coordinate ring of the secant line variety of a Segre--Veronese variety into a sum of irreducible representations under the natural action of a product of general linear groups.
Going one step further in Zak's classification of Scorza varieties with secant defect equal to one, we characterize the Veronese embedding of $¶^n$ given by the complete linear system of quadrics and its smooth projections from a point as the only smooth irreducible complex and non-degenerate projective subvarieties of $¶^N$ that can be projected isomorphically into $¶^{2n}$ when $N\geq\binom{n+2}{2}-2$.
Secant varieties of Segre-Veronese varieties $\mathbb{P}^m\times\mathbb{P}^n$ embedded by $\mathcal{O}(1,2)$ are non-defective for $n\gg m^3$, $m\geq3$
We give an upper bound for the rank of the border rank 3 partially symmetric tensors. In the special case of border rank 3 tensors $T\in V_1\otimes \cdots \otimes V_k$ (Segre case) we can show that all ranks among 3 and $k-1$ arise and if $\dim V_i \geq 3$ for all $i$'s, then also all the ranks between $k$ and $2k-1$ arise.
We compute the dimensions of all the secant varieties to the tangential varieties of all Segre-Veronese surfaces. We exploit the typical approach of computing the Hilbert function of special 0-dimensional schemes on projective plane by using a new degeneration technique.
If $X\subset \mathbb{P}^n$ is a projective non degenerate variety, the $X$-rank of a point $P\in \mathbb{P}^n$ is defined to be the minimum integer $r$ such that $P$ belongs to the span of $r$ points of $X$. We describe the complete stratification of the fourth secant variety of any Veronese variety $X$ via the $X$-rank. This result has an equivalent translation in terms both of symmetric tensors and homogeneous polynomials. It allows to classify all the possible integers $r$ that can occur in the minimal decomposition of either a symmetric tensor or a homogeneous polynomial of $X$-border rank…
In this paper we compute the dimension of all the higher secant varieties to the Segre-Veronese embedding of $\mathbb{P}^n\times \mathbb{P}^1$ via the section of the sheaf $\mathcal{O}(a,b)$ for any $n,a,b\in \mathbb{Z}^+$. We relate this result to the Grassmann Defectivity of Veronese varieties and we classify all the Grassmann $(1,s-1)$-defective Veronese varieties.
Let V_n be the Segre embedding of (P^1) x ... X (P^1) (n times). We prove that the higher secant varieties, σ_s(V_n), always have the expected dimension, except for σ_3(V_4), which is of dimension 1 less than expected.
This paper studies the dimension of secant varieties to Segre varieties. The problem is cast both in the setting of tensor algebra and in the setting of algebraic geometry. An inductive procedure is built around the ideas of successive specializations of points and projections. This reduces the calculation of the dimension of the secant variety in a high dimensional case to a sequence of calculations of partial secant varieties in low dimensional cases. As applications of the technique: We give a complete classification of defective $t$-secant varieties to Segre varieties for t < 7. We general…
Let $S_h$ be the even pure spinors variety of a complex vector space $V$ of even dimension $2h$ endowed with a non degenerate quadratic form $Q$ and let $σ_k(S_h) $ be the $k$-secant variety of $S_h$. We decribe a probabilistic algorithm which computes the complex dimension of $σ_k(S_h) $. Then, by using an inductive argument, we get our main result: $σ_3(S_h) $ has the expected dimension except when $h\in \{7,8\} $. Also we provide theoretical arguments which prove that $S_7$ has a defective 3-secant variety and $S_8$ has defective 3-secant and 4-secant varieties.
A well known theorem by Alexander-Hirschowitz states that all the higher secant varieties of $V_{n,d}$ (the $d$-uple embedding of $\mathbb{P}^n$) have the expected dimension, with few known exceptions. We study here the same problem for $T_{n,d}$, the tangential variety to $V_{n,d}$, and prove a conjecture, which is the analogous of Alexander-Hirschowitz theorem, for $n\leq 9$. Moreover. we prove that it holds for any $n,d$ if it holds for $d=3$. Then we generalize to the case of $O_{k,n,d}$, the $k$-osculating variety to $V_{n,d}$, proving, for $n=2$, a conjecture that relates the defectivity…
This paper studies the defectivity of secant varieties of Segre varieties. We prove that there exists an asymptotic lower estimate for the greater non-defective secant variety (without filling the ambient space) of any given Segre variety. In particular, we prove that the ratio between the greater non-defective secant variety of a Segre variety and its expected rank is lower bounded by a value depending just on the number of factors of the Segre variety. Moreover, in the final section, we present some results obtained by explicit computation, proving the non-defectivity of all the secant varie…
In this paper we study the higher secant varieties of Grassmann varieties in relation to Waring's problem for alternating tensors and to Alexander-Hirschowitz theorem. We show how to identify defective higher secant varieties of Grassmannians using a probabilistic method involving Terracini's Lemma, and we describe an algorithm which can compute, by numerical methods, dim(G(k,n)^{s}) for n<=14. Our main result is that, except for Grassmannians of lines, if n<=14 and k<=(n-1)/2 (if n=14 we have studied the case k<=5) there are only the four known defective cases: G(2,6)^{3}, G(3,7)^{3}, G(3,7)^…
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 $k=1$.
Cactus varieties are a generalization of secant varieties. They are defined using linear spans of arbitrary finite schemes of bounded length, while secant varieties use only isolated reduced points. In particular, any secant variety is always contained in the respective cactus variety, and, except in a few initial cases, the inclusion is strict. It is known that lots of natural criteria that test membership in secant varieties are actually only tests for membership in cactus varieties. In this article, we propose the first techniques to distinguish actual secant variety from the cactus variety…
We address special cases of a question of Eisenbud on the ideals of secant varieties of Veronese re-embeddings of arbitrary varieties. Eisenbud's question generalizes a conjecture of Eisenbud, Koh and Stillman (EKS) for curves. We prove that set-theoretic equations of small secant varieties to a high degree Veronese re-embedding of a smooth variety are determined by equations of the ambient Veronese variety and linear equations. However this is false for singular varieties, and we give explicit counter-examples to the EKS conjecture for singular curves. The techniques we use also allow us to p…
Let $X^{(n,m)}_{(1,d)}$ denote the Segre-Veronese embedding of $\mathbb{P}^n \times \mathbb{P}^m$ via the sections of the sheaf $\mathcal{O}(1,d)$. We study the dimensions of higher secant varieties of $X^{(n,m)}_{(1,d)}$ and we prove that there is no defective $s^{th}$ secant variety, except possibly for $n$ values of $s$. Moreover when ${m+d \choose d}$ is multiple of $(m+n+1)$, the $s^{th}$ secant variety of $X^{(n,m)}_{(1,d)}$ has the expected dimension for every $s$.
Let $v_d(\mathbb{P}^2)\subset |\mathcal{O}_{\mathbb{P}^2}(d)|$ denote the $d$-uple Veronese surface. After studying some general aspects of the wall-crossing phenomena for stability conditions on surfaces, we are able to describe a sequence of flips of the secant varieties of $v_d(\mathbb{P}^2)$ by embedding the blow-up $\mbox{bl}_{v_d(\mathbb{P}^2)}|\mathcal{O}_{\mathbb{P}^2}(d)|$ into a suitable moduli space of Bridgeland semistable objects on $\mathbb{P}^2$.
Tropical geometry yields good lower bounds, in terms of certain combinatorial-polyhedral optimisation problems, on the dimensions of secant varieties. In particular, it gives an attractive pictorial proof of the theorem of Hirschowitz that all Veronese embeddings of the projective plane except for the quadratic one and the quartic one are non-defective; this proof might be generalisable to cover all Veronese embeddings, whose secant dimensions are known from the ground-breaking but difficult work of Alexander and Hirschowitz. Also, the non-defectiveness of certain Segre embeddings is proved, w…
We consider higher secant varieties to Veronese varieties. Most points on the r-th secant variety are represented by a finite scheme of length r contained in the Veronese variety --- in fact, for generic point, it is just a union of r distinct points. A modern way to phrase it is: the smoothable rank is equal to the border rank for most polynomials. This property is very useful for studying secant varieties, especially, whenever the smoothable rank is equal to the border rank for all points of the secant variety in question. In this note we investigate those special points for which the smooth…
We study the syzygies of secant ideals of Veronese subrings of a fixed commutative graded algebra over a field of characteristic 0. One corollary is that the degrees of the minimal generators of the ith syzygy module of the coordinate ring of the rth secant variety of any Veronese embedding of a projective scheme X can be bounded by a constant that only depends on i, r, and X, and not on the choice of the Veronese embedding.
A variety of minimal degree is one of the basic objects in projective algebraic geometry and has been classified and characterized in many aspects. On the other hand, there are also minimal objects in the category of higher secant varieties, and their algebraic and geometric structures seem to share many similarities with those of varieties of minimal degree. We prove in this paper that higher secant varieties of minimal degree have determinantal presentation of two types, i.e. scroll type and Veronese type. Our result generalizes the del Pezzo-Bertini classification for varieties of minimal d…
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…
This note continues our previous work on special secant defective (specifically, conic connected and local quadratic entry locus) and dual defective manifolds. These are now well understood, except for the prime Fano ones. Here we add a few remarks on this case, completing the results in our papers \cite{LQEL I}, \cite{LQEL II}, \cite{CC}, \cite{HC} and \cite{DD}; see also the recent book \cite{Russo}
Let $X\subset \mathbb{P}^r$ be an integral and non-degenerate variety. Let $σ_{a,b}(X)\subseteq \mathbb{P}^r$, $(a,b)\in \mathbb{N}^2$, be the join of $a$ copies of $X$ and $b$ copies of the tangential variety of $X$. Using the classical Alexander-Hirschowitz theorem (case $b=0$) and a recent paper by H. Abo and N. Vannieuwenhoven (case $a=0$) we compute $\dim σ_{a,b}(X)$ in many cases when $X$ is the $d$-Veronese embedding of $\mathbb{P}^n$. This is related to certain additive decompositions of homogeneous polynomials. We give a general theorem proving that $\dim σ_{0,b}(X)$ is the expected o…
Let $λ=[d_1,\dots,d_r]$ be a partition of $d$. Consider the variety $\mathbb{X}_{2,λ} \subset \mathbb{P}^N$, $N={d+2 \choose 2}-1$, parameterizing forms $F\in k[x_0,x_1,x_2]_d$ which are the product of $r\geq 2$ forms $F_1,\dots,F_r$, with deg$F_i = d_i$. We study the secant line variety $σ_2(\mathbb{X}_{2,λ})$, and we determine, for all $r$ and $d$, whether or not such a secant variety is defective. Defectivity occurs in infinitely many "unbalanced" cases.
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.
An embedded manifold is dual defective if its dual variety is not a hypersurface. Using the geometry of the variety of lines through a general point, we characterize scrolls among dual defective manifolds. This leads to an optimal bound for the dual defect, which improves results due to Ein. Among other things we also provide a short and easy proof of the famous Landman Parity Theorem for dual defective manifolds based on our approach to the subject. We also discuss our conjecture that every dual defective manifold with cyclic Picard group should be secant defective, of a very special type, na…
Let $X \subset \mathbb{P}^r$ be smooth and irreducible and for $k \ge 0$ let $ν_k(X)$ (resp., $δ_k(X)$) be the $k$-th contact (resp., the $k$-th secant) defect of $X$. For all $k \ge 0$ we have the inequality $ν_k(X) \ge δ_k(X)$ and in the case $k=1$ we characterize projective varieties $X$ for which equality holds, $\dim \mathrm{Sing}(X) \le δ_1(X) -1$ and the generic tangential contact locus is reducible.
The paper is devoted to a detailed study of sextics in three variables having a decomposition as a sum of nine powers of linear forms. This is the unique case of a Veronese image of the plane which, in the terminology introduced by Ciliberto and the first author in [12], is weakly defective, and non-identifiable. The title originates from a paper of 1981, where Arbarello and Cornalba state and prove a result on plane curves with preassigned singularities, which is relevant to extend the studies of B. Segre on special linear series on curves. We explore the apolar ideal of a sextic $F$ and the …
If $\X \subset ¶^n$ is a reduced and irreducible projective variety, it is interesting to find the equations describing the (higher) secant varieties of $\X$. In this paper we find those equations in the following cases: $\X = ¶^{n_1}\times...\times¶^{n_t}\times¶^n$ is the Segre embedding of the product and $n$ is "large" with respect to the $n_i$ (Theorem 2.4); $\X$ is a Segre-Veronese embedding of some products with 2 or three factors; $\X$ is a Del Pezzo surface.
We completely describe the higher secant dimensions of all connected homogeneous projective varieties of dimension at most 3, in all possible equivariant embeddings. In particular, we calculate these dimensions for all Segre-Veronese embeddings of P^1 * P^1, P^1 * P^1 * P^1, and P^2 * P^1, as well as for the variety F of incident point-line pairs in P^2. For P^2 * P^1 and F the results are new, while the proofs for the other two varieties are more compact than existing proofs. Our main tool is the second author's tropical approach to secant dimensions.
Secant varieties to Veronese embeddings of projective space are classical varieties whose equations are not completely understood. Minors of catalecticant matrices furnish some of their equations, and in some situations even generate their ideals. Geramita conjectured that this is the case for the secant line variety of the Veronese variety, namely that its ideal is generated by the 3x3 minors of any of the "middle" catalecticants. Part of this conjecture is the statement that the ideals of 3x3 minors are equal for most catalecticants, and this was known to hold set-theoretically. We prove the…
Small codimensional embedded manifolds defined by equations of small degree are Fano and covered by lines. They are complete intersections exactly when the variety of lines through a general point is so and has the right codimension. This allows us to prove the Hartshorne Conjecture for manifolds defined by quadratic equations and to obtain the list of such Hartshorne manifolds. Using the geometry of the variety of lines through a general point, we characterize scrolls among dual defective manifolds. This leads to an optimal bound for the dual defect, which improves results due to Ein. We disc…
We consider here the problem, which is quite classical in Algebraic geometry, of studying the secant varieties of a projective variety $X$. The case we concentrate on is when $X$ is a Veronese variety, a Grassmannian or a Segre variety. Not only these varieties are among the ones that have been most classically studied, but a strong motivation in taking them into consideration is the fact that they parameterize, respectively, symmetric, skew-symmetric and general tensors, which are decomposable, and their secant varieties give a stratification of tensors via tensor rank. We collect here most o…