On tangent cones at infinity of algebraic varieties

Abstract

In this paper, we define the geometric and algebraic tangent cones at infinity of algebraic varieties and establish the following version at infinity of Whitney’s theorem [Local properties of analytic varieties, in Differential and Combinatorial Topology (A Symposium in Honor of Marston Morse) (Princeton University Press, Princeton, N. J., 1965), pp. 205–244; Tangents to an analytic variety, Ann. of Math. 81 (1965) 496–549]: The geometric and algebraic tangent cones at infinity of complex algebraic varieties coincide. The proof of this fact is based on a geometric characterization of the geometric tangent cone at infinity using the global Łojasiewicz inequality with explicit exponents for complex algebraic varieties. Moreover, we show that the tangent cone at infinity of a complex algebraic variety is actually the part at infinity of this variety [G.-M. Greuel and G. Pfister, A Singular Introduction to Commutative Algebra, 2nd extended edn. (Springer, Berlin, 2008)]. We also show that the tangent cone at infinity of a complex algebraic variety can be computed using Gröbner bases.