Tangents and Secants of Algebraic Varieties

Book excerpt: "The book is devoted to geometry of algebraic varieties in projective spaces. Among the objects considered in some detail are tangent and secant varieties, Gauss maps, dual varieties, hyperplane sections, projections, and varieties of small codimension. Emphasis is made on the study of interplay between irregular behavior of (higher) secant varieties and irregular tangencies to the original variety. Classification of varieties with unusual tangential properties yields interesting examples many of which arise as orbits of representations of algebraic groups."--ABSTRACT.