Differential operators on rational projective curves (Q1186766)

This paper is a detailed study of the ring of global differential operators on a rational projective curve \(X\). The authors prove that this ring \(D(X)\) is a Noetherian domain of Krull dimension one and global dimension two. It is a finitely generated \(k\)-algebra with a unique minimal nonzero ideal \(J(X)\). The quotient \(D(X)/J(X)\) is of finite dimension over \(k\) \((k\) is assumed to be algebraically closed and of characteristic 0 throughout.) A complete description of \(D(X)\) in terms of matrix algebra is also obtained in case the normalisation map is injective. It is proved that \(D(X)\) is not Morita equivalent to \(D(\mathbb{P}^ 1)\) in contrast with the affine case [see \textit{S. P. Smith} and \textit{J. T. Stafford}, Proc. Lond. Math. Soc., III. Ser. 56, No. 2, 229-259 (1988; Zbl 0672.14017)]. For any singular projective rational curve \(Y\) with injective normalisation map, \(D(X)\) is Morita equivalent to \(D(Y)\). The simple example of cuspidal plane cubic is worked out in detail in \(\S5\). The final section deals with differential operators with coefficients in an invertible sheaf. Let \(D_ X\) denote the sheaf of differential operators on \(X\), then \(D(X)=\Gamma(X,D_ X)\). The authors show that tensoring with \(D_ X\) defines an exact functor \(F:(D(X)\)-\(\bmod)\to(D_ X\)-\(\bmod)\) making the latter the quotient category of the former. However, this is not an equivalence of categories unlike the case \(X=\mathbb{P}^ 1\). The reason is that \(\Gamma(X,-):(D_ X\)-\(\bmod)\to(D(X)\)-\(\bmod)\) is not exact. The only \(D(X)\)-modules killed by \(F\) are copies of \(H^ 1(X,{\mathcal O}_ X)\).