On the invariant Hilbert schemes and Luna's étale slice theorem (Q1649365)

Luna's slice theorem [\textit{D. Luna}, Bull. Soc. Math. Fr., Suppl., Mém. 33, 81--105 (1973; Zbl 0286.14014)] is a classical result to study the local structure of an affine variety equipped with a reductive group action. In this paper, the author obtains a Luna's slice type theorem for certain moduli spaces called \textit{invariant Hilbert schemes}. These moduli spaces were introduced by Haiman and Sturmfels for diagonalizable groups [\textit{M. Haiman} and \textit{B. Sturmfels}, J. Algebr. Geom. 13, No. 4, 725--769 (2004; Zbl 1072.14007)] and then by \textit{V. Alexeev} and \textit{M. Brion} for arbitrary reductive algebraic groups [J. Algebr. Geom. 14, No. 1, 83--117 (2005; Zbl 1081.14005); \textit{M. Brion}, in: Handbook of moduli. Volume I. Somerville, MA: International Press; Beijing: Higher Education Press. 64--117 (2015; Zbl 1322.14001)]. They appear in many situations: classification of spherical varieties, invariant deformation theory of affine schemes with reductive group actions, construction of canonical resolutions of quotient singularities, etc. However little is know about the geometric properties of the invariant Hilbert schemes (connectedness, smoothness, reducedness, etc) except in some particular cases. The author obtains Luna's slice type results to study the local structure of invariant Hilbert schemes (Theorems 2.3 and 2.4). Then, he deduces numerical smoothness criteria for certain class of invariant Hilbert schemes (Corollaries 2.5 and 2.6). Also, a more involved example of invariant Hilbert scheme where these results apply to prove smoothness is provided in the last section of the paper.