Projective aspects of the geometry of Lagrangian Grassmannians and spinor varieties (Q2305861)

Let \(Q\) be a quadratic form and \(\omega\) be a simpletic form on a vector space \(V\) of dimension \(2n\). The authors define the Lagrangian Grassmanian \(\mathcal L\mathcal G(n,2n)\) as the isotropic Grassmanian \(\mathcal G_\omega(n,V)\) and the Spinor variety \(\mathcal S_n\) as one of the two irreducible components of the isotropic Grassmannian \(\mathcal G_Q(n,V)\), furthermore its minimal homogeneous embedding is called the Spinor embedding. The authors work on the classical problem of where the dimension of the secant variety is defective for the Spinor variety and the Lagrangian Grassmanian. It was conjectured for the last that the \(k\)-secant variety \(\sigma_k(\mathcal{LG}(n,2n))\) is defective only for \(n=4\) and \(k=3\), or \(n=4\) and \(k=4\). They first compute the dimension of the osculating space of \(\mathcal{LG}(n,2n)\) with the Plücker embedding and of \(\mathcal S_n\) with both the Plücker and the Spinor embedding. With the geometry of the osculating spaces understood they use a similar technique as developed in [\textit{A. Massarenti} and \textit{R. Rischter}, Ann. Sc. Norm. Super. Pisa, Cl. Sci. (5) 19, No. 1, 1--34 (2019; Zbl 1419.14080)] to give an improved boundary of where the secant variety of \(\mathcal{LG}(n,2n)\) and \(S_n\) are defective. Namely, \(\sigma_k(\mathcal{LG}(n,2n))\) with the Plücker embedding is not defective for \(k\leq \lfloor\frac{n+1}{2}\rfloor\). Moreover, \(\sigma_k(S_n)\) is not defective for \(k\leq \lfloor\frac{n}{2}\rfloor\) with the Plücker embedding and for \(k\leq\lfloor\frac{n+2}{4}\rfloor\) with the Spinor embedding.