Linear systems of hyperplane sections on varieties of low codimension (Q1065889)

Let \(X^ n\subset {\mathbb{P}}^ N\) be a non-degenerate smooth projective variety over an algebraically closed field, and suppose that X can be isomorphically projected to \({\mathbb{P}}^{2n+1-\delta}\), where \(\delta >0\). Then it turns out that \(N\leq f(Ent(n/\delta))\), where f is a quadratic function whose explicit form is computed in the paper. In other words, if \(X^ n\subset {\mathbb{P}}^ r\) has ''small codimension'', i.e. \(r\leq 2n\), then \(h^ 0(X,{\mathcal O}_ X(1))\leq f(Ent(n/2n+1-r))+1.\) The above result follows from a study of higher secant varieties; in particular, if \(S^ kX\) denotes the variety of k-dimensional secant subspaces of X (such that \(S^ 0X=X\) and \(S^ 1X=SX\) is the usual secant variety), then it is shown that \(S^{Ent(n/\delta)}={\mathbb{P}}^ N\) [for \(\delta >n\) this implies Hartshorne's conjecture on linear normality; cf. the author Mat. Sb., Nov. Ser. 116(158), 593-602 (1981; Zbl 0484.14016)]. It should be noted that all varieties X for which the above inequalities turn into equalities have been classified; they are called the Scorza varieties, and for \(\delta =n\) this notion coincides with the notion of Severi varieties as defined in the author's paper in Mat. Sbornik 126(168), No.1, 115-132 (1985; see the preceding review).