On varieties of almost minimal degree. I: Secant loci of rational normal scrolls (Q979067)

Let \(X \subset {\mathbb{P}}^r\) be a non degenerate irreducible projective variety (over an algebraically closed field). If deg\((X)=\)codim\((X)+2\) then \(X\) is said to be a variety of almost minimal degree. It is known that these varieties are of one of these two types: (1) \(X \subset {\mathbb{P}}^r\) is linearly normal and \(X\) is normal; (2) \(X \subset {\mathbb{P}}^r\) is not linearly normal or \(X\) is not normal. Moreover if (1) holds then \(X \subset {\mathbb{P}}^r\) is a normal Del Pezzo variety and if (2) occurs then \(X \subset {\mathbb{P}}^r\) is the projection of a minimal degree variety \(\tilde X \subset {\mathbb{P}}^{r+1}\) of codimension greater than or equal to 2 from a closed point \(p \in {\mathbb{P}}^{r+1} \setminus \tilde X\). Hence, in order to study case (2) one must describe what is usually called the entry locus \(\Sigma_p(\tilde X)=\{q \in \tilde X:\) length\((\tilde X \cap \langle p,q \rangle)\geq 2\}\) . For the Veronese surface, it is well known that it is either empty or a smooth conic. This allows to understand the case of cones over Veronese surfaces. The paper under review describes these loci when \(\tilde X \subset {\mathbb{P}}^{r+1}\) is a rational normal scroll of degree greater than or equal to three (see Prop. 3.2 and Cor. 3.4). Using this it is possible to classify non-normal del Pezzo varieties providing a geometric picture from the view point of linear projections and normalizations (see Thm. 6.2).