Subvarieties of small codimension in smooth projective varieties

Abstract

Let X\subsetneq\mathbb{P}_{\mathbb{C}}^{N} be an n-dimensional nondegenerate smooth projective variety containing an m-dimensional subvariety Y. Assume that either m>\frac{n}{2} and X is a complete intersection or that m\geq\frac{N}{2}, we show deg(X)|deg(Y) and codim_{span(Y)}Y\geq codim_{\mathbb{P}^{N}}X, where span(Y) is the linear span of Y. These bounds are sharp. As an application, we classify smooth projective n-dimensional quadratic varieties swept out by m\geq[\frac{n}{2}]+1 dimensional quadrics passing through one point.