Arithmetic properties of projective varieties of almost minimal degree

We study the arithmetic properties of projective varieties of almost minimal degree, that is of non-degenerate irreducible projective varieties whose degree exceeds the codimension by precisely 2. We notably show, that such a variety $X \subset {\mathbb P}^r$ is either arithmetically normal (and arithmetically Gorenstein) or a projection of a variety of minimal degree $\tilde {X} \subset {\mathbb P}^{r + 1}$fromanappropriatepoint$p \in {\mathbb P}^{r + 1} \setminus \tilde {X}$\mathrm{.}Wefocusonthelattersituationandstudy$X$ by means of the projection $\tilde{X}\to X$. If $X$ is not arithmetically Cohen-Macaulay, the homogeneous coordinate ring $B$ of the projecting variety $\tilde{X}$ is the endomorphism ring of the canonical module $K(A)$ of the homogeneous coordinate ring $A$ of $X\mathrm{.}$ If $X$ is non-normal and is maximally Del Pezzo, that is arithmetically Cohen-Macaulay but not arithmetically normal $B$ is just the graded integral closure of $A\mathrm{.}$ It turns out, that the geometry of the projection $\tilde{X}\to X$ is governed by the arithmetic depth of $X$ in any case. We study in particular the case in which the projecting variety $\tilde {X} \subset {\mathbb P}^{r + 1}$ is a cone (over a) rational normal scroll. In this case $X$ is contained in a variety of minimal degree $Y\subset {\mathbb{P}}^r$ such that ${\text{codim}}_Y(X)=1$. We use this to approximate the Betti numbers of $X$. In addition we present several examples to illustrate our results and we draw some of the links to Fujita’s classification of polarized varieties of $\mathrm{\Delta }$-genus 1.