Higher secant varieties of the minimal adjoint orbit (Q1763912)

Let \({\mathfrak g}\) be a semisimple Lie algebra over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero, and let \(C\) denote the preimage of the unique minimal orbit of the adjoint group of \({\mathfrak g}\) in \({\mathbb P}({\mathfrak g})\). The \((k-1)\)-st secant variety of \({\mathbb P}C\) is the projectivization of \(\overline{kC}\) (Zariski closure), where \(kC\) is the set of \(k\)-fold sums of elements of \(C\). In this well-written article, the authors present explicit descriptions of \(\overline{kC}\) for all classical \({\mathfrak g}\). The authors begin by addressing the previously known cases \({\mathfrak g}={\mathfrak {sl}}_n\) and \({\mathfrak g}={\mathfrak {sp}}_{2n}\) using a rank reduction method. They then apply this technique in the more complicated (and previously unknown) case of \({\mathfrak g}={\mathfrak o}_n\). Specifically, for \({\mathfrak g}={\mathfrak o}_n\) the first and second secant varieties are described by conditions on eigenvalues of matrices in \({\mathfrak o}_n\), while the third and higher secant varieties are exactly the Grassmannian of all projective lines. Also included are a number of results concerning the description of \(kC\) (as opposed to \(\overline{kC}\)) and corresponding defects (i.e., differences between expected and actual dimension of \(kC\)).