In this note, we show that for a smooth algebraic variety $Y$ and a smooth $m$-secant section $X$ of the $\mathbb{P}^1$-bundle $$f : \mathbb{P}(\mathcal{O}_Y \oplus \mathcal{O}_Y(E)) \longrightarrow Y,$$ where $E$ is an effective divisor on $Y$ satisfying $H^1(Y, \mathcal{O}_Y(kE)) = 0$ for all $k = 1, \ldots, m-1$, the Tschirnhausen module of the induced covering $ f|_X : X \longrightarrow Y $ is completely decomposable. We then apply it to coverings of curves arising in such a way.

We study the quadratic algebras $A(K,X,r)$ associated to a class of strictly braided but idempotent set-theoretic solutions $(X,r)$ of the Yang-Baxter or braid relations. In the invertible case, these algebras would be analogues of braided-symmetric algebras or `quantum affine spaces' but due to $r$ being idempotent they have very different properties. We show that all $A(K,X,r)$ for $r$ of a certain permutation idempotent type are isomorphic for a given $n=|X|$, leading to canonical algebras $A(K,n)$. We study the properties of these both via Veronese subalgebras and Segre products and in terms of noncommutative differential geometry. We also obtain new results on general PBW algebras which we apply in the permutation idempotent case.

We discuss the optimization problem for minimizing the $(n-1)$-volume of the intersection of a convex cone in $\Bbb R^n$ with a hyperplane through a given point.

We show that for two classes of $m$-secant curves $X \subset S$, with $m \geq 2$, where $f : S = \mathbb{P} (\mathcal{O}_Y \oplus \mathcal{O}_Y (E)) \to Y$ and $E$ is a non-special divisor on a smooth curve $Y$, the Tschirnhausen module $\mathcal{E}^{\vee}$ of the covering $\varphi = f_{|_X} : X \to Y$ decomposes completely as a direct sum of line bundles. Specifically, we prove that: for $X \in |\mathcal{O}_S (mH)|$, where $H$ denotes the tautological divisor on $S$, one has $ \mathcal{E}^{\vee} \cong \mathcal{O}_Y (-E) \oplus \cdots \oplus \mathcal{O}_Y (-(m-1)E) $; for$X \in |\mathcal{O}_S (mH + f^{\ast}q))|$, where$q$is a point on$Y$,$ \mathcal{E}^{\vee} \cong \mathcal{O}_Y (-E-q) \oplus \cdots \oplus \mathcal{O}_Y (-(m-1)E-q) $ holds. This decomposition enables us to compute the dimension of the space of global sections of the normal bundle of the embedding $X \subset \mathbb{P}^R$ induced by the tautological line bundle $|\mathcal{O}_S (H)|$, where $R = \dim |\mathcal{O}_S (H)|$. As an application, we construct new families of generically smooth components of the Hilbert scheme of curves, including components whose general points correspond to non-linearly normal curves, as well as nonreduced components.