The geometry of the flex locus of a hypersurface

Abstract

We give a formula in terms of multidimensional resultants for an equation for the flex locus of a projective hypersurface, generalizing a classical result of Salmon for surfaces in $\mathbb{P}^{3}$. Using this formula, we compute the dimension of this flex locus, and an upper bound for the degree of its defining equations. We also show that, when the hypersurface is generic, this bound is reached, and that the generic flex line is unique and has the expected order of contact with the hypersurface.