Remarks on defective Fano manifolds (Q2364523)

The authors consider smooth projective varieties \(X\subset \mathbb P^N\), of dimension \(n\), which are \textit{defective}, in the sense that the first secant variety \(SX\) has dimension smaller than \(2n+1\). The number \(\delta=2n+1-\dim(SX)\) is the \textit{defect } of \(X\). Several defective varieties are Fano manifolds, and the classification of defective Fano manifolds has been studied by the authors in a series of papers (see e.g. [Am. J. Math. 135, No. 2, 349--360 (2013; Zbl 1271.14055)]). In the paper under review, the authors obtain new classification results on defective Fano manifolds. They define the \textit{index} of an embedded Fano manifold \(X\) as the integer \(i\) such that \(K_X=-iH\), where \(H\) is the hyperplane class. Then, they obtain a classification for defective Fano manifolds of codimension \(c\leq (n+2)/2\) and high index \(i\geq n-(c-1)/2\). The authors also find several results on the geometry of Fano manifolds whose dual variety is not a hypersurface (dual-defective manifolds). All these results support the belief that for all dual-defective Fano manifold \(X\) whose Picard group is generated by \(H\), any general couple of points of \(X\) is contained in a quadric of dimension \(\delta\).