On the totally tangent lines to a generic hypersurface of degree \(4n - 4\) in \(\mathbb{P}^ n\) (Q1202441)

Let \(Y\subset\mathbb{P}^{n+1}\) be a hypersurface of degree \(d\) with a singular point \(p\) of multiplicity \(d-2\). Projection from \(p\) realizes \(Y\) as a double cover of \(\mathbb{P}^ n\), ramified along a hypersurface \(X \subset \mathbb{P}^ n\) having degree \(2(d-1)\), and lines \(l\subset Y\), \(p \notin l\), project to lines \(l'\) that are totally \(\bigl( =(d-1)-\bigr)\) tangent to \(X\). The paper under review considers the case \(d=2n-1\). It is shown that for a generic such \(X\) the variety \({\mathcal F}(X)\) of totally tangent lines is finite, and a formula for their number is given. -- Furthermore, it is shown that the monodromy group of this problem is the full symmetric group if \(n\geq 3\), contrary to the classical case of the bitangents to a plane quartic \((n=2)\). From easy irreducibility arguments it follows that the monodromy group is doubly transitive, and the presence of a simple transposition follows by exhibiting explicit \(X\)'s such that \({\mathcal F}(X)\) has a double point. Finally, it is shown that if \(l'\) is a singular point of \({\mathcal F}(X)\), then the normal bundle \({\mathcal N}_{l,Y}\) is special in the sense that it contains a summand different from \({\mathcal O}(-1)\).