Białynicki-Birula decomposition for reductive groups (Q2334879)

Algebraic varieties equipped with an reductive group action are considered. The goal is to generalize the Białynicki-Birula decomposition for torus action [\textit{A. Bialynicki-Birula}, Ann. Math. (2) 98, 480--497 (1973; Zbl 0275.14007)] to general situation, when a linearly reductive group acts. The paper deals with fundamental questions, it is clearly, very well written. The original Białynicki-Birula theorem for \(G=\mathbb G_m\) (the one dimensional torus) states that any smooth and complete algebraic \(G\)-variety \(X\) can be decomposed into cells \(X_i^+\) indexed by the components of \(X^{G}\). Let \(X^+\) be the disjoint union of the cells. The resulting natural maps \[\begin{matrix}i_X:&X^+\longrightarrow X&\text{ the sum of inclusions }\hfill\\ \pi_X:&X^+\longrightarrow X^G&\text{ the limit map} \;\lim_{t\to 0} tx\end{matrix}\] are \(G\)-equivariant and \(\pi_X\) is a locally trivial affine fibration. Moreover the action of \(G\) on \(X^+\) extends to an action of \(\;\overline G=\mathbb A^1\). When we drop the assumption on \(X\) being smooth and complete, then the map \(i_X\) does not have to be a bijection on the closed points and \(\pi_X\) is not necessarily a fibration. In the general setting for \(G=\mathbb G_m\) the functoriality of \(X^+\) was observed by \textit{V. Drinfeld} [``On algebraic spaces with an action of \(G_m\)'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1308.2604}]. The paper under review generalizes the situation to the following interesting and natural setting. Suppose \(G\) is a connected linearly reductive affine group. Let \(\overline G\) be a monoid containing \(G\) as a dense set. The basic example is an affine toric variety or the monoid of \(n\times n\) matrices containing \(GL_n\). With a mild assumption on \(X\) (locally of finite type) the scheme \(X^+\) together with the map \(i_X\) is defined. The scheme \(X^+\) represents the functor \(\mathcal D_{X,\overline G}:\mathbf{Sch}_k^{\mathrm{op}}\to\mathbf{Set}\) \[\mathcal D_{X,\overline G}(S)=\big\{\varphi:\overline G\times X\to X\;|\;\varphi\text{ is }G\text{-equivariant}\;\big\}.\] If the monoid \(\overline G\) contains a zero and \(X\) is smooth then the limit map \(\pi_X:X^+\to X^G\) exists and it is an affine fibre bundle. The result is extended to algebraic spaces. The functoriality of \(X^+\) is proven. The proof is based on the results of \textit{J. Alper} et al. [Ann. Math. (2) 191, No. 3, 675--738 (2020; Zbl 1461.14017)] which says that in étale topology and over an algebraically closed field every fixed point has an affine \(G\)-invariant neighbourhood. The result in the affine situation is obtained by looking at the formal neighbourhood of \(X^G\).