Severi varieties and their varieties of reductions

Abstract

We study the varieties of reductions associated to the four Severi varieties, the first example of which is the Fano threefold of index 2 and degree 5 studied by Mukai and others. We prove that they are smooth but very special linear sections of Grassmann varieties, and rational Fano manifolds of dimension $3a$ and index $a+1$, for $a=1, 2, 4, 8$. We study their maximal linear spaces and prove that through the general point pass exactly three of them, a result we relate to Cartan's triality principle. We also prove that they are compactifications of affine spaces.