Generalized varieties of sums of powers (Q2396997)

For an irreducible variety \(X\subset\mathbb P^N\) of dimension \(n\) the author defines the varieties of sum of powers \(\mathrm{VSP}^X(h)\) as follows. Given a general point \(P\in \mathbb P^N\), \(\mathrm{VSP}^X(h)\) is the closure, in the Hilbert scheme of subsets of length \(h\), of the set of schemes \(Z=\{x_1,\dots,x_h\}\) such that \(P\) belongs to the span of \(Z\) and \(x_i\in X\) for all \(i\). These varieties are generalization of the varieties of normal forms of polynomials, which correspond to the cases where \(X\) is a Veronese variety in its full embedding. The author studies birational properties of the varieties \(\mathrm{VSP}^X(h)\), when \(X\) is rational or unirational, with special focus to the case where \(h\) is big. The main result is the following. Assume that \(X\) is unirational and that there exists an integer \(k\) with \(\bar h:=N/(k+1)\) integer and \((N-n+1) > \bar h \geq (N+n+2)/(n+1)\). Then all the irreducible components of \(\mathrm{VSP}^X(h)\) are rationally connected for \(h\geq \bar h\). In the special case where \(X\) is a variety of minimal degree \(d=\)codim\((X)+1\), the author proves that \(\mathrm{VSP}^X(d)\) is rational and \(\mathrm{VSP}^X(h)\) is unirational for all \(h\geq d\).