Nilpotent orbits and complex dual pairs (Q1355616)

Let \(W\) be a complex symplectic vector space with symplectic group \(Sp(W)\). Let \(G,G'\subseteq Sp(W)\) be a complex reductive dual pair, so that \(G,G'\) are mutual commutants in \(Sp(W)\) acting semisimply on \(W\). Let \(\mathfrak g,\mathfrak g'\) be the Lie algebras of \(G\) and \(G'\). Then one has a moment map \(\tau:W\rightarrow\mathfrak g^*\) given by \(\tau(w)(x)=\langle x(w),w\rangle\), where \(\langle\cdot,\cdot\rangle\) is the symplectic form. Likewise there is a moment map \(\tau'\) from \(W\) to \(\mathfrak g'{}^*\). Composing one of these moment maps with the inverse of the other yields a map from \(\mathfrak g^*\) to \(\mathfrak g'{}^*\), which plays an important role in Howe's correspondence between representations of \(G\) and \(G'\) [\textit{R. Howe}, J. Am. Math. Soc. 2, 535-552 (1989; Zbl 0716.22006); \textit{T. Przebinda}, Duke Math. J. 69, 547-592 (1993; Zbl 0788.22018)]. The main result of this paper is that this map takes closures of nilpotent orbits to closures of nilpotent orbits. The authors prove this by working out the correspondence explicitly (on the level of partitions) in each case. Their main result was stated and used earlier in some special cases by \textit{H. Kraft} and \textit{C. Procesi} in their work on singularities of nilpotent orbit closures [Comment. Math. Helv. 57, 539-602 (1982; Zbl 0511.14023)].