Generic hypersurface singularities

Abstract

The problem considered here can be viewed as the analogue in higher dimensions of the one variable polynomial interpolation of Lagrange and Newton. Let x₁,...,x _r be closed points in general position in projective spacePn, then the linear subspaceV ofH ⁰ (⨑ⁿ,O(d)) (the space of homogeneous polynomials of degreed on ⨑ⁿ) formed by those polynomials which are singular at eachx _i, is given by r(n + 1) linear equations in the coefficients, expressing the fact that the polynomial vanishes with its first derivatives at x₁,...,x _r. As such, the “expected” value for the dimension ofV is max(0,h ⁰(O(d))−r(n+1)). We prove thatV has the “expected” dimension for d≥5 (theorem A). This theorem was first proven in [A] using a very complicated induction with many initial cases. Here we give a greatly simplified proof using techniques developed by the authors while treating the corresponding problem in lower degrees.