Unobstructedness of filling secants and the Gruson-Peskine general projection theorem (Q2342123)

The \textit{generic projection conjecture}, which predicted that the projection of a smooth embedded projective variety from a generic point has only the \textit{expected singularities}, has been recently proved by \textit{L. Gruson} and \textit{C. Peskine} (see [Duke Math. J. 162, No. 3, 553--578 (2013; Zbl 1262.14058)]). In the paper under review this result is generalized, showing smoothness and results of expected dimension for multiple point loci of generic projections, mainly from a point or a line, or for fibers of embedding dimension 2 or less. As stated in the introduction, three results extending Gruson and Peskine's result are proved: Theorem 4.1, where arbitrary ambient spaces are allowed and the result is presented as a general statement about deformation of rational curves on varieties constrained by contact conditions with a fixed subvariety; Theorem 5.1, where arbitrary-dimension centers of projection are allowed, fibres with local embedding dimension 2; Theorem 6.1, where arbitrary-centers and contact conditions are allowed, curvilinear fibers. The approach is different from that of Gruson and Peskine: it encodes the secant or contact conditions in a sheaf \(M\) (on the secant plane or curve), which controls the corresponding deformations; the geometric hypotheses on these secant or contact conditions imply generic spannedness for \(M\); since the base is often linear, the generic spannedness implies spannedness and a good control on the deformations.