Hypersurfaces containing involutive cones in projective symplectic spaces

Abstract

Let $V$ be a complex symplectic vector space and let $\mathbb{P}(V)$ carry the induced contact structure and symplectic polarity. We study the loci of hypersurfaces containing codimension-two cones supported on hyperplanes. The starting point is the following characterization: a projective subvariety $X\subset\mathbb{P}(V)$ which is a hypersurface of degree at least two in a hyperplane $H$ is involutive if and only if it is a cone whose vertex contains the polar point $σ(H)$. We give a short proof, construct the corresponding incidence spaces, compute their dimensions and express the incidence degrees as Segre-class integrals. In $\mathbb{P}^3$ the incidence map is birational for every $d\ge m\ge 2$ except $(m,d)=(2,2)$, and the same holds in $\mathbb{P}^5$; the quadratic case is exceptional in every dimension, the incidence having generic degree $2n$ in $\mathbb{P}^{2n-1}$. We also give a sufficient criterion for birationality in higher dimension, closed formulas in $\mathbb{P}^3$ and coefficient formulas in $\mathbb{P}^5$. For quadric cones in $\mathbb{P}^5$ the degree is the product of shifted binomial factors and an irreducible polynomial of degree 36, and we explain where the shifted factors come from.