A general canonical expression

Abstract

1. In a recent paper I established new conditions for a form φ of order n, homogeneous in r + 1 variables, to be expressible as the sum of nth powers of linear forms in these variables; and for this expression, if it exists, to be unique. These conditions, I further showed, may be stated as general theorems regarding the secant spaces of manifolds Mr in higher space, namely:Necessary and sufficient conditions that through a general point of a space N, of h (r + 1) − 1 dimensions, there passes (i) no, (ii) a unique (h − 1)-dimensional space containing h points of a manifold Mr lying in N are that(i) the space projecting a general point of Mr from the join of h − 1 general r-dimensional tangent spaces of Mr meets Mr in a curve, so that Mr cannot be so projected upon a linear space of r dimensions;(ii) the space projecting a general point of Mr from the join of h − 1 general r-dimensional tangent spaces of Mr does not meet Mr again, so that Mr can be so projected, birationally, upon a linear space of r dimensions..