Introduction: In this lecture series, we'll discuss algebro-geometric study on fundamental problems concerning tensors via higher secant varieties. We start by recalling definition of tensors, basic properties and small examples and proceed to discussion on tensor rank, decomposition, and X-rank for any nondegenerate variety $X$ in a projective space. Higher secant varieties of Segre (resp. Veronese) embeddings will be regarded as a natural parameter space of general (resp. symmetric) tensors in the lectures. We also review known results on dimensions of secants of Segre and Veronese, and consider various techniques to provide equations on the secants.In the end, we'll finish the lectures by introducing some open problems related to the theme such as syzygy structures and singularities of higher secant varieties.
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