Vector bundles give equations of cactus varieties (Q513259)

Finding equations for secant varieties of projective varieties \(X\) is, in general, a difficult task. Only in a few cases we know a complete set of equations, even working with Segre or Veronese varieties \(X\). A method for producing sets of equations for secant varieties has been introduced by \textit{J. M. Landsberg} and \textit{G. Ottaviani} [Ann. Mat. Pura Appl. (4) 192, No. 4, 569--606 (2013; Zbl 1274.14058)]: if \(X\) spans \(\mathbb P(W)\) and \(j:W\to A\otimes B\) is a linear map, then the pull back in \(j\) of equations produced by the \((kr+1)\times(rk+1)\) minors in \(A\otimes B\), where \(k\) is an appropriate constant, determines equations for the secant variety \(\sigma_r(X)\). A fast method for producing maps \(W\to A\otimes B\) derives from the choice of suitable vector bundles \(E\) on \(X\). The author studies if a similar construction extends to cactus secant varieties. A cactus secant variety \(\kappa_r(X)\) is the closure of the set of points in \(\mathbb P(W)\) which lie in the span of \(0\)-dimensional, \textit{not necessarily reduced} subsets \(Y\subset X\) of length \(r\). The author shows that, in general, maps \(j:W\to A\otimes B\) are not expected to produce equations for \(\kappa_r(X)\). Yet, maps \(j\) coming from the vector bundle construction above always produce equations for \(\kappa_r(X)\). As a corollary, the author proves that, since \(\sigma_r(X)\) is often a proper subvariety of \(\kappa_r(X)\), then the vector bundle contruction can fail to produce a complete set of equations for \(\sigma_r(X)\).