Generic hypersurface singularities

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 ofH⁰ (?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,h⁰(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.