On the variety parameterizing completely decomposable polynomials (Q615881)

This paper is devoted to the study of how several varieties, which parameterize polynomials or tensors possessing different kinds of decompositions, do interact and intersect. The main interest is on varieties parameterizing polynomials of degree \(d\) in \(n+1\) variables which are the product of \(d\) linear factors (here such varieties are denoted by Split\(_d({\mathbb P}^n)\)). Their secant varieties are studied, and it is shown that for \(d>2\) and \(3(s-1)\leq n\), all the \(s\)-secant varieties of Split\(_d({\mathbb P}^n)\) have the expected dimension (while for \(d=2\) they are known to be defective). Then the three varieties \(S\), \(G\) and \(V\) are studied, where \(S\)=Split\(_d({\mathbb P}^n)\), \(G\) is the Grassmannian \(G={\mathbb G}(n-1, n+d-1)\) and \(V\) is the Veronese variety \(V= \nu_d({\mathbb P}^n)\) (the \(d\)-uple embedding of \({\mathbb P}^n\)). These variety are embedded in \({\mathbb P}^N\), \(N={n+d \choose n}-1\), which can be viewed both as the Plücker space of \(G\) and as the space parameterizing forms of degree \(d\) in \(n+1\) variables, i.e. in \(k[x_0,\dots,x_n]\). The idea is to view the \((n+1)\)-dimensional vector space \(k[x_0,\dots,x_n]_1\) as \(S^d(W)\), where \(W\) is a 2-dimensional vector space, and use the well-known isomorphism \(\wedge^d(S^{n+d-1}W) \cong S^d(S^nW)\). An explicit description is given of the intersection of \(G\) with \(S\) and some of the secant varieties to \(S\), of \(G\cap \tau(V)\) and of \(G\cap O_2(V)\), where \(\tau(V)\) is the tangential variety of \(V\) and \(O_2(V)\) its osculating variety.