Singularities of the projective dual variety (Q657358)

Let \(X\subset {\mathbb P}^N\) be an irreducible, nondegenerate projective variety and let \(X^*\subset ({\mathbb P}^{N})^*\) be its projective dual space. Let \(L\subset {\mathbb P}^N\) be a linear space such that \(\langle L, T_{X,x}\rangle \not={\mathbb P}^N\) for all regular points \(x\) of \(X\), and such that the lines in \(X\) meeting \(L\) do not cover \(X\). Then the main result of the article shows that if \(x\in X\) is general, then the multiplicity of \(X^*\) at a general point of \(\langle L, T_{X,x}\rangle^\perp\) is strictly greater than the multiplicity of \(X^*\) at the general point of \(L^\perp\). This is a refinement of Bertini's theorem. The manuscript lists also some corollaries related with Zak's conjecture and Scorza varieties.