On homogeneous vector bundles

Let G be a simply connected linear algebraic group, defined over the field of complex numbers, whose Lie algebra is simple. Let P be a proper parabolic subgroup of G. Let E be a holomorphic vector bundle over G/P such that E admits a homogeneous structure. Assume that E is not stable. Then E admits a homogeneous structure with the following property: There is a nonzero subbundle F?E left invariant by the action of G such that degree(F)/rank(F)?degree(E)/rank(E).     

On reachable elements and the boundary of nilpotent orbits in simple Lie algebras

Let g be a simple Lie algebra. An element x∈g is said to be reachable, if it is contained in the commutant of its centraliser. Any reachable element is necessarily nilpotent. We study various properties of reachable elements, and a relationship between the property of being reachable and the codimension of the boundary of the corresponding orbit. Some general estimates for the boundary of an arbitrary nilpotent orbit is given.     

Toric sets and orbits on toric varieties

Let D be an integer matrix. A toric set, namely the points in Kⁿ parametrized by the columns of D, and a toric variety are associated to D. The toric set is a subset of the toric variety. We describe the relation between the toric set and the toric variety, in terms of the orbits of the torus action on the toric variety. The toric set depends on the sign (+,−,0) pattern of the matrix D. Finally, we prove that any toric variety over an algebraically closed field can be expressed as a toric set, for an appropriate matrix.     

Stability of homogeneous principal bundles with a classical groupas the structure group

Let G be a connected semisimple linear algebraic group defined over an algebraically closed field k and P ⊂ G a parabolic subgroup without any simple factor. Let H be a connected reductive linear algebraic group defined over the field k such that all the simple quotients of H are of classical type. Take any homomorphism π : P → H such that the image of p is not contained in any proper parabolic subgroup of H. Consider the corresponding principal H-bundle E_P(H) = (G × H)/P over G/P. We prove that E_P (H) is strongly stable with respect to any polarization on G/P.     

Scorza varieties and Jordan algebras

In this paper, I give two very direct proves of the correspondance between a geometric object (Scorza varieties) and an algebraic one (Jordan algebras). I also give a short proof of the homogeneity of Scorza varieties, and a new and very simple proof of properties of the automorphism group of a Jordan algebra.     

Severi varieties

R. Hartshorne conjectured and F. Zak proved (cf [6,p.9]) that any smooth non-degenerate complex algebraic variety with satisfies denotes the secant variety of X; when X is smooth it is simply the union of all the secant and tangent lines to X). In this article, I deal with the limiting case of this theorem, namely the Severi varieties, defined by the conditions and . I want to give a different proof of a theorem of F. Zak classifying all Severi varieties. F. Zak proves that there exists only four Severi varieties and then realises a posteriori that all of them are homogeneous; here I will work in another direction: I prove a priori that any Severi variety is homogeneous and then deduce more quickly their classification, satisfying R. Lazarsfeld et A. Van de Ven's wish [6, p.18]. By the way, I give a very brief proof of the fact that the derivatives of the equation of Sec(X), which is a cubic hypersurface, determine a birational morphism of . I wish to thank Laurent Manivel for helping me in writing this article. Received in final form: 29 March 2001 / Published online: 1 February 2002     

Singular Poisson-Kähler geometry of Scorza varieties and their secant varieties

Each Scorza variety and its secant varieties in the ambient projective space are identified, in the realm of singular Poisson-Kähler geometry, in terms of projectivizations of holomorphic nilpotent orbits in suitable Lie algebras of hermitian type, the holomorphic nilpotent orbits, in turn, being affine varieties. The ambient projective space acquires an exotic Kähler structure, the closed stratum being the Scorza variety and the closures of the higher strata its secant varieties. In this fashion, the secant varieties become exotic projective varieties. In the rank 3 case, the four regular Scorza varieties coincide with the four critical Severi varieties. In the standard cases, the Scorza varieties and their secant varieties arise also via Kähler reduction. An interpretation in terms of constrained mechanical systems is included.     

Toric degenerations of spherical varieties

We prove that any affine, resp. polarized projective, spherical variety admits a flat degeneration to an affine, resp. polarized projective, toric variety. Motivated by mirror symmetry, we give conditions for the limit toric variety to be a Gorenstein Fano, and provide many examples. We also provide an explanation for the limits as boundary points of the moduli space of stable pairs whose existence is predicted by the Minimal Model Program.     

Equivariant deformations of the affine multicone over a flag variety

We prove that the invariant Hilbert scheme parameterising the equivariant deformations of the affine multicone over a flag variety is, under certain hypotheses, an affine space. More specifically, we obtain that the isomorphism classes of equivariant deformations of such a multicone are in correspondence with the orbits of a well-determined wonderful variety.     

Poisson structures on affine spaces and flag varieties. I. Matrix affine Poisson space

The standard Poisson structure on the rectangular matrix variety Mm,n(C) is investigated, via the orbits of symplectic leaves under the action of the maximal torus T⊂GLm+n(C). These orbits, finite in number, are shown to be smooth irreducible locally closed subvarieties of Mm,n(C), isomorphic to intersections of dual Schubert cells in the full flag variety of GLm+n(C). Three different presentations of the T-orbits of symplectic leaves in Mm,n(C) are obtained: (a) as pullbacks of Bruhat cells in GLm+n(C) under a particular map; (b) in terms of rank conditions on rectangular submatrices; and (c) as matrix products of sets similar to double Bruhat cells in GLm(C) and GLn(C). In presentation (a), the orbits of leaves are parametrized by a subset of the Weyl group Sm+n, such that inclusions of Zariski closures correspond to the Bruhat order. Presentation (b) allows explicit calculations of orbits. From presentation (c) it follows that, up to Zariski closure, each orbit of leaves is a matrix product of one orbit with a fixed column-echelon form and one with a fixed row-echelon form. Finally, decompositions of generalized double Bruhat cells in Mm,n(C) (with respect to pairs of partial permutation matrices) into unions of T-orbits of symplectic leaves are obtained.     

On spherical ideals of Borel subalgebras

The goal of this paper is to extend some previous results on abelian ideals of Borel subalgebras to so-called spherical ideals of These are ideals of such that their G-saturation is a spherical G-variety. We classify all maximal spherical ideals of for all simple G.Received: 25 March 2004     

Compact Kähler quotients of algebraic varieties and Geometric Invariant Theory

Given an action of a complex reductive Lie group G on a normal variety X, we show that every analytically Zariski-open subset of X admitting an analytic Hilbert quotient with projective quotient space is given as the set of semistable points with respect to some G-linearised Weil divisor on X. Applying this result to Hamiltonian actions on algebraic varieties, we prove that semistability with respect to a momentum map is equivalent to GIT-semistability in the sense of Mumford and Hausen. It follows that the number of compact momentum map quotients of a given algebraic Hamiltonian G-variety is finite. As further corollary we derive a projectivity criterion for varieties with compact Kähler quotient.     

On the conormal bundle of a G-stable subvariety

Let G be a reductive algebraic group and X a smooth G-variety. For a smooth locally closed G-stable subvariety M⊂X, we prove that the G-complexity of the (co)normal bundle of M is equal to the G-complexity of X. In particular, if X is spherical, then all (co)normal bundles are again spherical G-varieties. If X is a G-module with finitely many orbits, the closures of the conormal bundles of the orbits coincide with the irreducible components of the commuting variety. We describe properties of these closures for the representations associated with short gradings of simple Lie algebras. Received: 22 April 1998     

Finite orbit modules for parabolic subgroups of exceptional groups

Let G be a reductive linear algebraic group, P a parabolic subgroup of G and P_u its unipotent radical. We consider the adjoint action of P on the Lie algebra _u of P_u. Each higher term _u^(l) of the descending central series of _u is stable under this action. For classical G all instances when P acts on _u^(l) with a finite number of orbits were determined in [9], [10], [3] and [4]. In this note we extend these results to groups of type F₄ and E₆. Moreover, when P acts on _u^(l) with an infinite number of orbits, we determine whether P still acts with a dense orbit. For G of type E₇ and E₈ we investigate only the case of a Borel subgroup.We present a complete classification of all instances when _u^(l) is a prehomogeneous space for a Borel subgroup B of a reductive algebraic group for any l ≥ 0.     

On some smooth projective two-orbit varieties with Picard number 1

We classify all smooth projective horospherical varieties with Picard number 1. We prove that the automorphism group of any such variety X acts with at most two orbits and that this group still acts with only two orbits on X blown up at the closed orbit. We characterize all smooth projective two-orbit varieties with Picard number 1 that satisfy this latter property.     

Two results on centralisers of nilpotent elements

Let g be a semisimple Lie algebra. We provide a short proof of McNinch’s result on centralisers of the sum of commuting nilpotent elements (J. Pure Appl. Algebra 206 (2006), 123-140) and characterise nilpotent elements e∈g having the property that the orbit G⋅e is the largest nilpotent orbit meeting the centraliser of e.     

Hilbert curves of polarized varieties

Let X be a normal Gorenstein complex projective variety. We introduce the Hilbert variety V_X associated to the Hilbert polynomial χ(x₁L₁+?+x_ρL_ρ), where L₁,…,L_ρ is a basis of , ρ being the Picard number of X, and x₁,…,x_ρ are complex variables. After studying general properties of V_X we specialize to the Hilbert curve of a polarized variety (X,L), namely the plane curve of degree dim(X) associated to χ(xK_X+yL). Special emphasis is given to the case of polarized threefolds.     

On the quiver Grassmannian in the acyclic case

Let A be the path algebra of a quiver Q with no oriented cycle. We study geometric properties of the Grassmannians of submodules of a given A-module M. In particular, we obtain some sufficient conditions for smoothness, polynomial cardinality and we give different approaches to Euler characteristics. Our main result is the positivity of Euler characteristics when M is an exceptional module. This solves a conjecture of Fomin and Zelevinsky for acyclic cluster algebras.     

Local Euler obstructions of toric varieties

We use Matsui and Takeuchi's formula for toric A-discriminants to give algorithms for computing local Euler obstructions and dual degrees of toric surfaces and 3-folds. In particular, we consider weighted projective spaces. As an application we give counterexamples to a conjecture by Matsui and Takeuchi. As another application we recover the well-known fact that the only defective normal toric surfaces are cones.