Closures of \(K\)-orbits in the flag variety for \(U(p,q)\) (Q1048208)

For \(G\) a complex reductive subgroup with Borel subgroup \(B\) and an involutive automorphism \(\theta\) one can consider the closure of orbits in \(G/B\) under the action of \(G^{\theta}\), obtaining what are called symmetric varieties. Here, the author investigates these symmetric varieties in the case where \(G\) is a general linear group and \(\theta\) is conjugation by a diagonal matrix, determining when such a \(G^{\theta}\)-orbit has rationally smooth closure. Specifically, let \(G=\text{GL}(n,\mathbb{C})\) and write \(n=p+q\). Let \(\theta\) be conjugation by a diagonal matrix on \(G\) with eigenvalues \(1\) and \(-1\) or multiplicity \(p\) and \(q\) respectively. Then \(G^{\theta}\) is naturally identified with \(\text{GL}(p,\mathbb{C})\times\text{GL}(q,\mathbb{C}),\) or alternatively is the complexification of the maximal compact subgroup \(U(p)\times U(q)\) of the real form \(U(p,q)\) of \(G\). Taking \(B\leq G\) to be the upper-triangular matrices one knows that the \(G^{\theta}\)-orbits in \(G/B\) are parameterized by sequences \(\gamma=(c_{1},\dots,c_{n}),\) where \(c_{i}\) are symbols which are \(+\) or \(-\) or a natural number, in such a way that every natural number occurs twice or not at all. Such sequences are called clans, and correspond to collections of complete flags in \(\mathbb{C}^{n}.\) We will denote the orbit corresponding to \(\gamma\) by \(\mathcal{O}_{\gamma}.\) The main (and only)result can be easily stated in terms of clans. If \(\gamma\) includes one of the patterns \((1,+,-,1)\), \((1,-,+,1)\), \((1,2,1,2)\), \((1,+,2,2,1)\), \((1,-,2,2,1)\), \((1,2,2,+,1),\) or \((1,2,2,-1,1)\) then \(\mathcal{O}_{\gamma}\) does not have rationally smooth closure. If \(\gamma\) does not include any of the patterns above it is a derived functor orbit and hence its closure is smooth.