Varieties with a degenerate Gauss map with multiple foci, and twisted cones (Q2387043)

The authors are dealing with smooth \( n \)-dimensional subvarieties of a real projective space \( \mathbb{P}^{N} \) whose Gauss maps have constant rank \( < n \), calling them tangentially degenerate varieties. For foundations on varieties from the algebraic point of view it is appealed to the work of \textit{P. Griffiths} and \textit{J. Harris} [Ann. Sci. École Norm. Sup. (4) 12, 355--452 (1979; Zbl 0446.14019)]. The leaves of the Gauss map foliate the variety into (pieces of) flats along which the tangent spaces are fixed (generalizing torses in \( 3 \)-space). However, the completed leaves may have singularities (foci), and the authors study various situations with multiple foci in general and particularly in the space \( \mathbb{P}^{4} \). The existence problems are treated with É. Cartan's method on PDE-systems for differential forms.