On the irreducibility of secant cones, and an application to linear normality. (Q1413726)

Let \(Y \subset \mathbb{P}^r\) be an integral nondegenerate subvariety, \(Y^{[2]}\) the normalization of the blow-up of \(Y\times Y\) along the diagonal, \(I_Y\) the tautological \(\mathbb{P}^1\)-bundle over \(I_Y\) (i.e. the incidence variety) and \(f: I_Y \to \mathbb{P}^r\) the associated projection. Here the authors give assumptions on \(Y\) which imply the irreducibility of the generic fiber \(f\). They obtain a very nice version of Zak's linear normality theorem.