Degenerate (r-2)-dimensional subvarieties through the generic hyperplane section of a reduced irreducible complex curve in \({\mathbb{P}}^ r\) (Q752797)

Let X be a set of points in \({\mathbb{P}}^{r-1}\) (projective space over \({\mathbb{C}}):\) when is it the hyperplane section of a (good) curve in \({\mathbb{P}}^ r ?\) \textit{J. Harris} [Math. Ann. 249, 191-204 (1980; Zbl 0449.14006)] shows that a necessary condition is the uniform position property (UPP): the set X of n distinct points has UPP iff, for all \(t\in {\mathbb{N}}\) and all \(m\leq n\), every subset \(X'\) of X of m points imposes the same number of conditions to the linear system of the hypersurfaces of degree \( t.\) It is well known that UPP does not force at all a set X to be a hyperplane section. - The main result of the paper is an additional necessary condition for X to be a hyperplane section. Let C be a reduced irreducible curve, X its generic hyperplane section, S the generic 2-codimensional subvariety of \({\mathbb{P}}^ r\) which is degenerate (that is, lies on a hyperplane) and contains X. Then S is smooth at the points of X. - For \({\mathbb{P}}^ 3\) this means that the generic plane curve S through the plane section X of C is smooth at all points of X. Examples are then discussed for \({\mathbb{P}}^ 3\). For instance a set X of points with UPP is given in 2-space, such that X is the section of an irreducible curve but cannot be the ``general one''.