Multi-Secant Lemma

Abstract

We present a new generalization of the classical trisecant lemma. Our approach is quite different from previous generalizations. Let $X$ be an equidimensional projective variety of dimension $d$. For a given $k \leq d + 1$, we are interested in the study of the variety of $k$-secants. The classical trisecant lemma just considers the case where $k = 3$ while elsewhere the case $k = d + 2$ is considered. Secants of order from $4$ to $d + 1$ provide service for our main result. In this paper, we prove that if the variety of $k$-secants ($k \leq d + 1$) satisfies the three following conditions: (i) trough every point in $X$, passes at least one $k$-secant, (ii) the variety of $k$-secant satisfies a strong connectivity property that we defined in the sequel, (iii) every $k$-secant is also a ($k+1$)-secant, then the variety $X$ can be embedded into $P^{d+1}$. The new assumption, introduced here, that we called strong connectivity is essential because a naive generalization that does not incorporate this assumption fails as we show in some example. The paper concludes with some conjectures concerning the essence of the strong connectivity assumption.