No label defined (Q4244061)

The adjoint varieties of this paper are certain varieties obtained from the adjoint representation of a connected simple algebraic group -- they have nothing to do with the adjoints of classical algebraic geometry. It is shown that these adjoint varieties provide examples of varieties with degenerate secant varieties. The main results of the paper are: (A) If \(X\) is an adjoint variety obtained from an algebraic group with Lie algebra \(\mathfrak g\) then \(\dim \operatorname{Sec}(X)=2\dim X\); moreover \(\operatorname{Sec}(X)\) is properly contained in its ambient projective space if \(\operatorname{rank}{\mathfrak g}\geq 2\); (B) The contact locus \(C_u\) has dimension 2 for generic \(u\in \operatorname{Sec}(X)\). For terminology, see \textit{F. L. Zak}'s now classic monograph [``Tangents and secants of algebraic varieties'', Transl. Math. Monographs 127 (1993; Zbl 0795.14018)].