Classification of Bertini's series of varieties of dimension less than or equal to four (Q677643)

The author investigates Bertini's images and Bertini's series of low dimensional projective varieties in \(\mathbb{P}^n\) (over the complex numbers), without any assumptions about singularities. The notions of Bertini's images and of Bertini's series were introduced and discussed by the author in his Ph.D. thesis [\textit{E. Rogora}, ``Metodi proiettivi per lo studio di alcune questioni relative alle varietà immerse'', and by \textit{E. Rogora} in Boll. Unione Mat. Ital., VII. Ser., B 10, No. 1, 149-174 (1996; Zbl 0887.14002)], developing ideas which, following Beniamino Segre (1903-1977) [see \textit{B. Segre}, J. Lond. Math. Soc. 26, 164-176 (1951; Zbl 0042.39504)], go back to Eugenio Bertini (1846-1933). The main results concern: an upper bound for the dimension of first Bertini's image of varieties of defect 1 (theorem 3.2.6); the classification of 3-dimensional varieties with nontrivial Bertini's series (theorem 4.2.2); the analysis of bidimensional family of lines whose focal scheme is degenerate (theorem 4.3.2 and 4.3.3); the complete classification of 3-dimensional varieties with degenerate Gauss map (theorem 4.3.4); the classification of 4-dimensional varieties of defect 1, having Bertini's image of maximal dimension (theorem 5.2.2); the classification of 4-dimensional varieties with nontrivial Bertini's series (theorem 6.1.1); the classification of 2-dimensional families of planes with defect 1 (proposition 7.3.5). The author discusses also some possible refinements of his results and the connections with the classification of varieties with a degenerate dual variety given by \textit{P. Griffiths} and \textit{J. Harris} [Ann. Sci. Éc. Norm. Supér. IV, Sér. 12, 355-452 (1979; Zbl 0426.14019)]. To obtain his goal, the author studies the local differential geometry of families of linear spaces, developing methods introduced by Corrado Segre (1863-1924) [see especially \textit{C. Segre}, Rend. Circ. Mat. Palermo 30, 87-121 (1910; JFM 41.0724.01)].