On the irreducibility of commuting varieties of nilpotent matrices (Q1409743)

The irreducibility of the variety \({\mathcal H}(n,K)\) of all the pairs \((A,B)\) of \(n \times n\) nilpotent matrices over an algebraic closed field \(K\) such that \([A,B] = 0\) if either \(\operatorname {char}K = 0\) or \(\operatorname {char}K \geq n/2\) is proved. First, some properties of the set of all the \(n \times n\) nilpotent matrices over an algebraic closed field \(K\) are derived. Then, a more elementary proof of the irreducibility of \({\mathcal H}(n,K)\) than in previous works is given. The main step of the proof of the irreducibility of \({\mathcal H}(n,K)\) is the result that if either \(\operatorname {char}K = 0\) or \(\operatorname {char}K \geq n/2\) and \(m\) is such that \(n/2 + 2 \leq m \leq n\) then the subvariety of \({\mathcal H}(n,K)\) of all the pairs \((A,B)\) such that rank \(A \geq n - 2\) and \(n/2 + 1 <\) ind \(A \leq m\) (where ind \(A\) is the index of nilpotency of \(A\)) is irreducible. As a consequence, a proof of the irreducibility of the local Hilbert scheme of \(n\) points of a smooth algebraical surface for an algebraically closed field \(K\) such that either \(\operatorname {char}K = 0\) or \(\operatorname {char}K \geq n/2\) is obtained.