Irreducibility of the punctual quotient scheme of a surface (Q1416638)

Given a projective scheme \(X\) and a coherent sheaf \(E\) on \(X\), the scheme \(\text{Quot}(E/X)\), introduced by \textit{A. Grothendieck} [in Sémin. Bourbaki 1960/1961, Exp. 221 (1961; Zbl 0236.14003)], parametrizes the quasi-coherent quotients of \(E\). The paper under review treats a special case. If \(X\) is a smooth projective surface and \(E\) is locally free of rank \(r\geq 1\), then \(\text{Quot}(E,l)\) parametrizes all quotients \(E\to T\), where \(T\) is zero-dimensional of length \(l\). The authors prove that \(\text{Quot}(E,l)\) is an irreducible scheme of dimension \(l(r+1)\) and that the fibre of the natural map \(\pi\) from \(\text{Quot}(E,l)\) to \(S^l(X)\) over a point \(\sum_xl_xx\) is also irreducible and of dimension \(\sum_x(rl_x-1)\). In the case \(r=1\), where \(\text{Quot}(E,l)\) is isomorphic to the Hilbert scheme, the theorem had been proved by J. Fogarty and J. Briançon. For \(r\geq 2\), related results are due to J. Li, D. Gieseker and V. Baranovsky. The theorem cannot be extended to singular or higher-dimensional varieties: It is already false in the first case \(r=1\).