On the prime ideals of higher secant varieties of Veronese embeddings of small degrees

Abstract

In this paper, we study minimal generators of the (saturated) defining ideal of $\sigma_k(v_d(\mathbb{P}^n))$ in $\mathbb{P}^{N}$ with ${N=\binom{n+d}{d}-1}$, the $k$-secant variety of $d$-uple Veronese embedding of projective $n$-space, of a relatively small degree. We first show that the prime ideal $I(\sigma_4(v_3(\mathbb{P}^3)))$ can be minimally generated by 36 homogeneous polynomials of degree $5$. It implies that $\sigma_4(v_3(\mathbb{P}^3)) \subset \mathbb{P}^{19}$ is a del Pezzo $4$-secant variety (i.e., $\mathrm{deg}(\sigma_4(v_3(\mathbb{P}^3))) = 105$ and the sectional genus $\pi(\sigma_4(v_3(\mathbb{P}^3))) = 316$) and provides a new example of an arithmetically Gorenstein variety of codimension $4$. As an application, we decide non-singularity of a certain locus in $\sigma_4(v_3(\mathbb{P}^3))$. By inheritance, generators of $I(\sigma_4(v_3(\mathbb{P}^n)))$ are also obtained for any $n \geq 3$. We also propose a procedure to compute the first non-trivial degree piece $I(\sigma_k(v_d(\mathbb{P}^n)))_{k+1}$ for a general $k$-th secant case, in terms of prolongation and weight space decomposition, based on the method used for $\sigma_4(v_3(\mathbb{P}^3))$ and treat a few more cases of $k$-secant varieties of the Veronese embedding of a relatively small degree in the end.