On the third secant variety

Abstract

We determine normal forms and ranks of tensors of border rank at most three. We present a differential-geometric analysis of limits of secant planes in a more general context. In particular there are at most four types of points on limiting trisecant planes for cominuscule varieties such as Grassmannians. We also show that the singular locus of the secant varieties σ r(Seg(Pn×Pm×Pq)) has codimension at least two for r=2,3. © 2014 The Author(s).