The Veronese map of degree 2 is a mapping from to the space of symmetric matrices defined by the formula:[1]
Note that for any .
In particular, the restriction of to the unit sphere factors through the projective space , which defines Veronese embedding of . The image of the Veronese embedding is called the Veronese submanifold, and for it is known as the Veronese surface.[2]
Analogous Veronese embeddings are constructed for complex and quaternionic projective spaces, as well as for the Cayley plane.