Ordinary subvarieties of codimension one (Q1291039): Difference between revisions

The notion of ordinary singularity for a germ of algebraic curve \(C\), classically given in terms of branches, can be algebraically rephrased by requiring that the projectification of the associated graded algebra is a reduced scheme. This definition often implies that the tangent cone of an ordinary singularity is reduced also at the vertex. The author extends the definition to the local ring \(A\) of a variety \(X\) at the generic point of a subvariety \(Y\) of codimension 1: \(Y\) is an ordinary subvariety of \(X\) if \(\text{Proj} (G(A))\) is reduced. When \(X\) is reduced and the base field is algebraically closed, it turns out that \(Y\) is an ordinary subvariety of \(X\) if and only if the tangent cone of \(X\) at all points in an open dense subset of \(Y\) splits in the union of reduced linear spaces.