Criteria for rational smoothness of some symmetric orbit closures

Hultman, Axel

Discrete mathematics & theoretical computer science, DMTCS Proceedings vol. AN, 22nd International Conference on Formal Power Series and Algebraic Combinatorics (FPSAC 2010), DMTCS Proceedings vol. AN, 22nd International Conference on Formal Power Series and Algebraic Combinatorics (FPSAC 2010) (2010).

Résumé

Let $G$ be a connected reductive linear algebraic group over $ℂ$ with an involution $θ$ . Denote by $K$ the subgroup of fixed points. In certain cases, the $K-orbits$ in the flag variety $G/B$ are indexed by the twisted identities $ι (θ ) = {θ (w^{-1})w | w∈W}$ in the Weyl group $W$. Under this assumption, we establish a criterion for rational smoothness of orbit closures which generalises classical results of Carrell and Peterson for Schubert varieties. That is, whether an orbit closure is rationally smooth at a given point can be determined by examining the degrees in a "Bruhat graph'' whose vertices form a subset of $ι (θ )$. Moreover, an orbit closure is rationally smooth everywhere if and only if its corresponding interval in the Bruhat order on $ι (θ )$ is rank symmetric. In the special case $K=\mathrm{Sp}_{2n}(ℂ), G=\mathrm{SL}_{2n}(ℂ)$, we strengthen our criterion by showing that only the degree of a single vertex, the "bottom one'', needs to be examined. This generalises a result of Deodhar for type A Schubert varieties.

Détail

DOI : 10.46298/dmtcs.2852