Desingularizations of Schubert varieties in double Grassmannians (Q1002808)

Let \(V\) be a finite-dimensional vector field over an arbitrary ground field. In the paper under review a description of pairs of subspaces in \(V\) of fixed dimensions \(k\) and \(l\) up to the action of the group \(B\subset\text{GL}(V)\) of nondegenerate upper-triangular matrices is obtained. In other words, the author describes \(B\)-orbits in the direct product \(X=\text{Gr}(k,V)\times \text{Gr}(l,V)\) of two Grassmannians. This description is similar to the Schubert decomposition for Grassmannians or to the Ehresmann-Bruhat decomposition for full flag varieties. The combinatorial description of \(B\)-orbits in \(X\) may be found in [\textit{P.~Magyar, J.~Weyman} and \textit{A.~Zelevinsky}, Adv. Math. 141, No. 1, 97--118 (1999; Zbl 0951.14034)]; the proof there is based on quiver theory. The description given in the present paper uses only elementary linear algebra. The closures of \(B\)-orbits in \(X\) may be viewed as analogues of Schubert varieties in Grassmannians. The singularities of Schubert varieties admit nice desingularizations constructed by Bott and Samelson. In this paper, the author constructs a similar desingularization for the closures of \(B\)-orbits in \(X\).