New examples of defective secant varieties of Segre-Veronese varieties (Q1956303)

Let \(X\subset \mathbb {P}^N\) be an integral variety. The \(t\)-secant variety \(\sigma _t(X)\) of \(X\) is the closure in \(\mathbb {P}^N\) of the union of the linear spans of \(t\) points of \(X\); it has expected dimension \(\min \{N,t \cdot (\dim (X)+1)-1\}\); \(X\) is said to be defective if one of its secant varieties has not the expected dimension. In the paper under review \(X = \mathbb {P}^{n_1}\times \cdots \times \mathbb {P}^{n_s}\), \(N:= -1+\prod _{i=1}^{s} \binom{n_i+d_1}{n_i}\) and the embedding is the Segre-Veronese embedding by the complete linear system associated to the line bundle of multidegree \((d_1,\dots ,d_s)\). We may assume \(s\geq 2\), because all the defective linearly normal embeddings of projective spaces are known ([\textit{J. Alexander} and \textit{A. Hirschowitz}, J. Algebr. Geom. 4, No. 2, 201--222 (1995; Zbl 0829.14002)]). For \(s\geq 2\) many defective cases were found in [\textit{M. V. Catalisano}, \textit{A. V. Geramita} and \textit{A. Gimigliano}, Projective varieties with unexpected properties. A volume in memory of Giuseppe Veronese. Proceedings of the international conference ``Varieties with unexpected properties'', Siena, Italy, June 8--13, 2004. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. 81--107 (2005; Zbl 1102.14037)]. For arbitrary \(s\) and \(d_i=1\) for all \(i\) (Segre embeddings) a conjectural list of all defective cases was given in [\textit{H. Abo}, \textit{G. Ottaviani} and \textit{C. Peterson}, Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 361, No. 2, 767--792 (2009; Zbl 1170.14036)]. If \(n_i=1\) for all \(i\), then the conjecture was proved in [\textit{M. V. Catalisano}, \textit{A. V. Geramita} and \textit{A. Gimigliano}, J. Algebr. Geom. 20, No. 2, 295--327 (2011; Zbl 1217.14039)]. For arbitrary multidegrees, but \(s=2\), see [\textit{A. Bernardi}, \textit{E. Carlini} and \textit{M. V. Catalisano}, J. Pure Appl. Algebra 215, No. 12, 2853--2858 (2011; Zbl 1231.14044)] and [\textit{E. Ballico}, \textit{A. Bernardi} and \textit{M. V. Catalisano}, Commun. Algebra 40, No. 10, 3822--3840 (2012; Zbl 1262.14066)]. For arbitrary \(s\) and arbitrary multidegrees an inductive procedure was developed in [\textit{H. Abo} and \textit{M. C. Brambilla}, Ann. Mat. Pura Appl. (4) 192, No. 1, 61--92 (2013; Zbl 1262.14065)]. To complete the list of all defective Segre-Veronese embeddings it is essential to do the low multidegree cases. In the paper under review the authors found two classes of defective Segre-Veronese embedding with \(s=3,4\) and multidegrees \((1,\dots ,1,d)\) (extending examples in [\textit{E. Carlini} and \textit{M. V. Catalisano}, J. Lond. Math. Soc., II. Ser. 80, No. 1, 1--17 (2009; Zbl 1181.14035)]).