The singularities of the closures of nilpotent orbits in certain symmetric pairs (Q1108390)

Let \({\mathfrak g}\) be a complex reductive Lie algebra and \(\theta\) a non- trivial involution of \({\mathfrak g}\). Let \({\mathfrak g}={\mathfrak k}+{\mathfrak p}\) be the Cartan decomposition of \({\mathfrak g}\) with respect to \(\theta\), i.e., \({\mathfrak k}=\{X\in {\mathfrak g}\); \(\theta (X)=X\}\), \({\mathfrak p}=\{X\in {\mathfrak g}\); \(\theta (X)=-X\}\). Clearly \({\mathfrak k}\) is then a subalgebra of \({\mathfrak g}\), [\({\mathfrak k},{\mathfrak p}]\subset {\mathfrak p}\) and [\({\mathfrak p},{\mathfrak p}]\subset {\mathfrak k}\). We call the pair (\({\mathfrak g},{\mathfrak k})\) a symmetric pair and \({\mathfrak p}\) the vector space associated to (\({\mathfrak g},{\mathfrak k}).\) Let G be the adjoint group of \({\mathfrak g}\) and \(K_{\theta}\) the subgroup of the elements in G which commute with \(\theta\). Then \(K_{\theta}\) acts on \({\mathfrak p}\) by the adjoint action. \textit{B. Kostant} and \textit{S. Rallis} [Am. J. Math. 93, 753-809 (1971; Zbl 0224.22013)] obtained several results on the orbit structure of \({\mathfrak p}\) under the action of \(K_{\theta}\). On the other hand, \textit{H. Kraft} and \textit{C. Procesi} [Invent. Math. 53, 227-247 (1979; Zbl 0434.14026), ibid. 62, 503-515 (1981; Zbl 0478.14040), and Comment. Math. Helv. 57, 539-602 (1982; Zbl 0511.14023)] studied the singularities in the closures of nilpotent orbits of classical Lie algebras and gave a sufficient condition for an orbit closure to be normal. The purpose of this paper is to generalize some results of Kraft and Procesi to the following symmetric pairs \(({\mathfrak g},{\mathfrak k})=({\mathfrak gl}(n,C),{\mathfrak o}(n,C))\) \((\epsilon =1)\), \(({\mathfrak gl}(2m,C),{\mathfrak sp}(m,C))\) \((\epsilon =-1)\).