This paper explores the dimensions of higher secant varieties to
Segre-Veronese varieties. The main goal of this paper is to introduce two
different inductive techniques. These techniques enable one to reduce the
computation of the dimension of the secant variety in a high dimensional case
to the computation of the dimensions of secant varieties in low dimensional
cases. As an application of these inductive approaches, we will prove
non-defectivity of secant varieties of certain two-factor Segre-Veronese
varieties. We also use these methods to give a complete classification of
defective s-th Segre-Veronese varieties for small s. In the final section, we
propose a conjecture about defective two-factor Segre-Veronese varieties.Comment: Revised version. To appear in Annali di Matematica Pura e Applicat
