Strict inclusions of high rank loci (Q820957)

Working over the complex numbers, if $p_1,\dots,p_r \in \mathbb{P}^N$ is a collection of points in projective $N$-space $\mathbb{P}^N$, then let \[\langle p_1,\dots,p_r \rangle \subseteq \mathbb{P}^N\] denote their span. Further, fixing a nondegenerate projective variety $X \subseteq \mathbb{P}^N,$ the $X$-rank of a point $p \in \mathbb{P}^N$ is defined to be \[ \operatorname{rk}_X(p) := \min \{r : p \in \langle p_1,\dots, p_r \rangle \text{ where $p_i \in X$} \} . \] Within this context, in the article under review, the authors study the Zariski closure of the set of points $p \in \mathbb{P}^N$ which have $X$-rank equal to a given natural number $k$ \[ W_k := \overline{\{p \in \mathbb{P}^N : \operatorname{rk}_X(p) = k \} } . \] They are motivated by work of \textit{J. Buczyński} et al. [Eur. J. Math. 4, No. 1, 113--136 (2018; Zbl 1401.14219)] which established the inclusion \[ W_k + X \subseteq W_{k-1} , \] for all \[ g+1 \leq k \leq \max \{ \operatorname{rk}_X(p) : p \in \mathbb{P}^N \}. \] Here, $W_k + X$ denotes the join of $W_k$ and $X$ and $g$ is the smallest integer for which $W_g = \mathbb{P}^N$. In the present article, the authors' contribution is to give examples for which the above containment is strict. They establish a collection of results. For example, they show that \begin{itemize} \item[(i)] If $X \subset \mathbb{P}^{14}$ is the Veronese surface of plane quartics, then \[ W_7 + X \subsetneq W_6 = \mathbb{P}^{14} . \] \item[(ii)] If $X \subset \mathbb{P}^3$ is a smooth and nondegenerate degree $d \geq 3$ and genus $p_g \geq 0$ curve with \[ 23 p_g < d^2 - 3 d - 15 , \] when $d$ is odd and \[ p_g < (3 d^2 - 18 d + 16) / 16 , \] when $d$ is even, then \[ W_3 + X \subsetneq W_2 = \mathbb{P}^3 , \] if $W_3$ is finite and nonempty. \item[(iii)] For all integers $d \geq 5$, there exists a degree $d$ rational curve $X \subset \mathbb{P}^4$ which has the property that \[ W_4 + X \subsetneq W_3 = \mathbb{P}^4 . \] \end{itemize} In the proof of these results, the authors employ geometric techniques from classical algebraic geometry. They are illustrated in several examples.