Legendre transforms and dual varieties (Q1329304)

The author defines the notion of flatness degree related to a projective variety \(S\). It is known for a variety \(S\) as a plane curve the classical notion of the so-called Legendre transform is applicable to the graph of a certain smooth function \(g\). This is true even if \(S\) is not a plane curve, but a subvariety of an \(n\)-dimensional real or complex space of codimension \(m\) more than 1. Otherwise one needs to introduce the generalized Legendre transform. This transform is studied in detail, in particular its involutivity is proved. The main result of this paper consists of a familiar theorem of \textit{P. Griffiths} and \textit{J. Harris} [Ann. Sci. Éc. Norm. Supér., IV. Sér. 12, 355-432 (1979; Zbl 0426.14019)] namely its analog concerning the codimension of the dual variety and its expression through the respective flatness degree.