We study the singularities of closures of Iwahori orbits on loop spaces of symmetric varieties extending the celebrated work of Lusztig-Vogan to the affine setting. We show that the IC-complexes of orbit closures (with possible non-trivial coefficients) are pointwise pure and satisfy a parity vanishing property. We apply those geometric results to study the affine Lusztig-Vogan modules and obtain fundational results about them including the positivity properties of the affine Kazhdan-Lusztig-Vogan polynomials. Along the way, we construct conical transversal slices inside loop spaces of symmetric varieties generalizing the work of Mars-Springer in the finite dimensional setting. Our results answer a question of Lusztig.
We deduce results for singularities of spherical orbit closures and provide applications to relative Langlands duality including the positivity for the relative Kostka-Foulkes polynomials and the formality conjecture.
Let A be a finitely generated associative algebra over an algebraically closed field. We characterize the finite dimensional modules over A whose orbit closures are regular varieties.
Let $N$ be a point of an orbit closure $\bar{O_M}$ in a module variety such that its orbit $O_N$ has codimension two in $\bar{O_M}$. We show that under some additional conditions the pointed variety $(\bar{O_M},N)$ is smoothly equivalent to a cone over a rational normal curve.
This short note is a supplement to the previous article with the same title. Here we treat a conical symplectic variety obtained as a finite covering of a (not necessarily normal) nilpotent orbit closure of a complex semisimple Lie algebra.
Let M_d(k) denote the space of dxd-matrices with coefficients in an algebraically closed field k. Let X be an orbit closure in the product [M_d(k)]^t equipped with the action of the general linear group GL_d(k) by simultaneous conjugation. We show that X is regular at any its point y such that the orbit of y has codimension one in X. The proof uses mainly the representation theory of associative algebras.
We prove that a conical symplectic variety with maximal weight 1 is isomorphic to one of the following: (i) an affine space with the standard symplectic form (ii) a nilpotent orbit closure of a complex semisimple Lie algebra with the Kirillov-Kostant form.
We prove that for a simply laced group, the closure of the Borel conjugacy class of any nilpotent element of height $2$ in its conjugacy class is normal and admits a rational resolution. We extend this, using Frobenius splitting techniques, to the closure in the whole Lie algebra if either the group has type $A$ or the element has rank $2$.
This is an expository article on the singularities of nilpotent orbit closures in simple Lie algebras over the complex numbers. It is slanted towards aspects that are relevant for representation theory, including Maffei's theorem relating Slodowy slices to Nakajima quiver varieties in type A. There is one new observation: the results of Juteau and Mautner, combined with Maffei's theorem, give a geometric proof of a result on decomposition numbers of Schur algebras due to Fang, Henke and Koenig.
According to a well-known theorem of Brieskorn and Slodowy, the intersection of the nilpotent cone of a simple Lie algebra with a transverse slice to the subregular nilpotent orbit is a simple surface singularity. At the opposite extremity of the nilpotent cone, the closure of the minimal nilpotent orbit is also an isolated symplectic singularity, called a minimal singularity. For classical Lie algebras, Kraft and Procesi showed that these two types of singularities suffice to describe all generic singularities of nilpotent orbit closures: specifically, any such singularity is either a simple …
This paper deals with singularities of closures of $2$-nilpotent Borel conjugacy classes in either a $\text{GL}_n$-conjugacy class or in the nilpotent cone of $\text{GL}_n$. In the latter case we construct a resolution of singularities, in the former we show that singularities are rational by applying a result of M. Brion. We reason why this generalizes the result of N. Perrin and E. Smirnov on the rationality of singularities of Springer fiber components in the two-column case. In the case of Borel orbit closures being contained in orbital varieties, we give an alternative version of L. Fress…
Let F be the flag variety of a complex semi-simple group G, let H be an algebraic subgroup of G acting on F with finitely many orbits, and let V be an H-orbit closure in F. Expanding the cohomology class of V in the basis of Schubert classes defines a union V_0 of Schubert varieties in F with positive multiplicities. If G is simply-laced, we show that these multiplicites are equal to the same power of 2. For arbitrary G, we show that V_0 is connected in codimension 1. If moreover all multiplicities are 1, we show that the singularities of V are rational, and we construct a flat degeneration of…
We unify aspects of the equivariant geometry of type $D$ quiver representation varieties, double Grassmannians, and symmetric varieties $GL(a+b)/GL(a)\times GL(b)$; in particular we translate results about singularities of orbit closures, combinatorics of orbit closure containment, and torus equivariant $K$-theory between these three families. These results are all obtained from our generalization of a construction of Zelevinsky for type $A$ quivers to the type $D$ setting. More precisely, we give explicit embeddings with nice properties of homogeneous fiber bundles over type $D$ quiver repres…
Let $H$ be a connected spherical subgroup of a semisimple algebraic group $G$. In this paper, we give a criterion for $H$-orbit closures in the flag variety of $G$ to have nice geometric and cohomological properties. Our main tool is the method of Frobenius splitting and of global F-regularity.
We define the Barbasch-Evens-Magyar varieties. We show they are isomorphic to the smooth varieties defined in [D.~Barbasch-S.~Evens '94] that map generically finitely to symmetric orbit closures, thereby giving resolutions of singularities in certain cases. Our definition parallels [P.~Magyar '98]'s construction of the Bott-Samelson varieties [H.~C.~Hansen '73, M.~Demazure '74]. From this alternative viewpoint, one deduces a graphical description in type $A$, stratification into closed subvarieties of the same kind, and determination of the torus-fixed points. Moreover, we explain how these ma…
We discuss some connections between the closure $\bar F$ of a Steinberg fiber in the wonderful compactification of an adjoint group and the affine Deligne-Lusztig varieties $X_w(1)$ in the affine flag variety. Among other things, we describe the emptiness/nonemptiness pattern of $X_w(1)$ if the translation part of $w$ is quasi-regular. As a by-product, we give a new proof of the explicit description of $\bar F$, first obtained in \cite{H1}.
With the help of Lusztig's canonical basis, we study local intersection cohomology of the Zariski closures of orbits of representations of a quiver of type A, D or E. In particular, we characterize the rationally smooth orbits and prove that orbit closures are smooth if and only if they are rationally smooth. This provides an analogue of theorems of V. Deodhar, and J. Carrell and D. Peterson on Schubert varieties.
We describe noncommutative desingularizations of determinantal varieties, determinantal varieties defined by minors of generic symmetric matrices, and pfaffian varieties defined by pfaffians of generic anti-symmetric matrices. For maximal minors of square matrices and symmetric matrices, this gives a non-commutative crepant resolution. Along the way, we describe a method to calculate the quiver with relations for any non-commutative desingularizations coming from exceptional collections over partial flag varieties.
For a given irreducible projective variety $X$, the closure of the set of all hyperplanes containing tangents to $X$ is the projectively dual variety $X^{\vee}$. We study the singular locus of projectively dual varieties of certain Segre-Plücker embeddings in series of papers. In this work we give a classification of the irreducible components of the singular locus of the dual Grassmannian. Basically, it admits two components: cusp type and node type which are degeneracies of a certain Hessian matrix, and the closure of the set of tangent planes having more than one critical point, respectivel…
Let g be a semisimple complex Lie algebra. Let O be a nilpotent orbit in g. Fix a triangular decomposition g=n+h+n^-. An irreducible component of the intersection of O and n is called an orbital variety associated to O. It is a Lagrangian subvariety of O. In this note we discuss the closure of an orbital variety as a union of varieties. We show that if g contains factors not of type A_n then there are orbital varieties whose closure contains components which are not Lagrangian. We show that the argument does not work if all the factors are of type A_n and provide the facts supporting the conje…
For the classical groups, Kraft and Procesi have resolved the question of which nilpotent orbits have closures which are normal and which are not, with the exception of the very even orbits in $D_{2l}$ which have partition of the form $(a^{2k}, b^2)$ for $a, b$ distinct even natural numbers with $a k + b = 2 l$. In this article, we show that these orbits do have normal closure.
Let $X^v_w$ be a Richardson variety in the full flag variety $X$ associated to a symmetrizable Kac-Moody group $G$. Recall that $X^v_w$ is the intersection of the finite dimensional Schubert variety $X_w$ with the finite codimensional opposite Schubert variety $X^v$. We give an explicit $\bQ$-divisor $Δ$ on $X^v_w$ and prove that the pair $(X^v_w, Δ)$ has Kawamata log terminal singularities. In fact, $-K_{X^v_w} - Δ$ is ample, which additionally proves that $(X^v_w, Δ)$ is log Fano. We first give a proof of our result in the finite case (i.e., in the case when $G$ is a finite dimensional semis…
For a semisimple adjoint algebraic group $G$ and a Borel subgroup $B$, consider the double classes $BwB$ in $G$ and their closures in the canonical compactification of $G$: we call these closures large Schubert varieties. We show that these varieties are normal and Cohen-Macaulay; we describe their Picard group and the spaces of sections of their line bundles. As an application, we construct geometrically van der Kallen's filtration of the algebra of regular functions on $B$. We also construct a degeneration of the flag variety $G/B$ embedded diagonally in $G/B\times G/B$, into a union of Schu…
We give explicit formulas for torus-equivariant fundamental classes of closed $K$-orbits on the flag variety $G/B$ when $G$ is one of the classical groups $SL(n,\C)$, $SO(n,\C)$, or $Sp(2n,\C)$, and $K$ is a symmetric subgroup of $G$. We describe parametrizations of each orbit set and the combinatorics of its weak order, allowing us to compute formulas for the equivariant classes of all remaining orbit closures using divided difference operators. In each of the cases in type A, we realize the $K$-orbit closures as universal degeneracy loci of a certain type, involving a vector bundle $V$ over …
For a finite subgroup $Γ\subset \mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{C})$ and $n\geq 1$, we construct the (reduced scheme underlying the) Hilbert scheme of $n$ points on the Kleinian singularity $\mathbb{C}^2/Γ$ as a Nakajima quiver variety for the framed McKay quiver of $Γ$, taken at a specific non-generic stability parameter. We deduce that this Hilbert scheme is irreducible (a result previously due to Zheng), normal, and admits a unique symplectic resolution. More generally, we introduce a class of algebras obtained from the preprojective algebra of the framed McKay quiver by a process called cornering, a…
We determine which nilpotent orbits in $E_6$ have normal closure and which do not. We also verify a conjecture about small representations in rings of functions on nilpotent orbit covers for type $E_6$.
The generalized commuting and isospectral commuting varieties of a reductive Lie algebra have been introduced in a preceding article. In this note, it is proved that their normalizations are Gorenstein with rational singularities. Moreover, their canonical modules are free of rank 1. In particular, the usual commuting variety is Gorenstein with rational singularities and its canonical module is free of rank 1.
Let X be the moduli space of SL(n,C), SU(n), GL(n,C), or U(n)-valued representations of a rank r free group. We classify the algebraic singular stratification of X. This comes down to showing that the singular locus corresponds exactly to reducible representations if there exist singularities at all. Then by relating algebraic singularities to topological singularities, we show the moduli spaces X generally are not topological manifolds, except for a few examples we explicitly describe.
For any truncated path algebra $Λ$ of a quiver, we classify, by way of representation-theoretic invariants, the irreducible components of the parametrizing varieties $\mathbf{Rep}_{\mathbf{d}}(Λ)$ of the $Λ$-modules with fixed dimension vector $\mathbf{d}$. In this situation, the components of $\mathbf{Rep}_{\mathbf{d}}(Λ)$ are always among the closures $\overline{\mathbf{Rep}\,\mathbb{S}}$, where $\mathbb{S}$ traces the semisimple sequences with dimension vector $\mathbf{d}$, and hence the key to the classification problem lies in a characterization of these closures. Our first result concern…
We consider two partial orders on standard Young tableaux. The first one is induced from the weak right Bruhat order on symmetric group by Robinson-Schensted algorithm. The second one is induced from the order on Young diagrams by considering a Young tableau as a chain of Young diagrams. We show that these two orders of completely different nature coincide on the subset of Young tableaux with 2 columns or with 2 rows. This fact has very interesting geometric implications for orbital varieties of nilpotent order 2 in sl(n).
For a semisimple Lie algebra g the orbit method attempts to assign representations of g to (coadjoint) orbits in g*. Orbital varieties are particular Lagrangian subvarieties of such orbits leading to highest weight representations of g. In sl(n) orbital varieties are described by Young tableaux. In this paper we consider so called Richardson orbital varieties in sl(n). A Richardson orbital variety is an orbital variety whose closure is a standard nilradical. We show that in sl(n) a Richardson orbital variety closure is a union of orbital varieties. We give a complete combinatorial description …
We describe an algorithm which pattern embeds, in the sense of Woo-Yong, any Bruhat interval of a symmetric group into an interval whose extremes lie in the same right Kazhdan-Lusztig cell. This apparently harmless fact has applications in finding examples of reducible associated varieties of $\mathfrak{sl}_n$-highest weight modules, as well as in the study of $W$-graphs for symmetric groups, and in comparing various bases of irreducible representations of the symmetric group or its Hecke algebra. For example, we are able to systematically produce many negative answers to a question from the 1…
We review the various pattern avoidance criteria that have been developed for smoothness and rational smoothness of symmetric subvarieties of flag varieties in the classical cases, including some proofs and giving references for other results.
We will use the combinatorics of the $G$-stable pieces to describe the closure relation of the partition of partial flag varieties in \cite[section 4]{L3}.
We present a simple unified formula expressing the denominators of the normalized R-matrices between the fundamental modules over the quantum loop algebras of type ADE. It has an interpretation in terms of representations of the Dynkin quivers and can be proved in a unified way using the geometry of graded quiver varieties. As a by-product, we obtain a geometric interpretation of Kang-Kashiwara-Kim's generalized quantum affine Schur-Weyl duality functor when it arises from a family of fundamental modules. We also study several cases when the graded quiver varieties are isomorphic to the graded…
We realize certain graded Nakajima varieties of finite Dynkin type as orbit closures of repetitive algebras of Dynkin quivers. As an application, we obtain that the perverse sheaves introduced by Nakajima for describing irreducible characters of quantum loop algebras are isomorphic to the intersection cohomology sheaves of these orbit closures.
We present two methods for computing the rational singular locus of the closure of a nilpotent orbit in a complex semisimple Lie algebra and give a number of interesting examples.
For a semisimple Lie algebra g the orbit method attempts to assign representations of g to (coadjoint) orbits in g*. Orbital varieties are particular Lagrangian subvarieties of such orbits leading to highest weight representations of g. In sl(n) orbital varieties are described by Young tableaux. Inclusion relation on orbital variety closures defines a partial order on Young tableaux. Our aim is to describe this order. The paper is devoted to the combinatorial description of induced Duflo order on Young tableaux (the order generated by inclusion of generating subspaces of orbital varieties). Th…
Let Delta be an Euclidean quiver. We prove that the closures of the maximal orbits in the varieties of representations of Delta are normal and Cohen--Macaulay (even complete intersections). Moreover, we give a generalization of this result for the tame concealed-canonical algebras.
