Projective Duality, Unexpected Hypersurfaces and Logarithmic Derivations of Hyperplane Arrangements

Abstract: Several papers have been written studying unexpected hypersurfaces. We say a finite set of points Z admits unexpected hypersurfaces if a general union of fat linear subspaces imposes less that the expected number of conditions on the ideal of Z. In this paper, we introduce the concept of a very unexpected hypersurface. This is a stronger condition which takes into account an explanation for some hypersurfaces previously considered unexpected. We then develop a duality theory to relate the study of very unexpected hypersurfaces to the derivations of dual hyperplane arrangements. This allows us to generalize results in the plane of Cook, Harbourne, Migliore, Nagel Faenzi, and Vall\'{e}s to higher dimensions. In particular, we give a criterion to determine if a set Z admits very unexpected hypersurfaces in the case Z is invariant under the action of an irreducible reflection group on the ambient projective space. Our approach has new applications even in the projective plane where we are able to place strong conditions on sets of points Z which admit certain types of unexpected curves. We close relating Terao's Freeness Conjecture for line arrangements to a conjecture due to G. Dirac on configurations of points in the real plane.