Commuting matrices and the Hilbert scheme of points on affine spaces (Q1629388)

The authors generalize linear algebraic and monad descriptions of the Hilbert schemes \(\text{Hilb}^{[c]} (\mathbb C^2)\) of length \(c\) subschemes of \(\mathbb C^2\) given by \textit{H. Nakajima} [Lectures on Hilbert schemes of points on surfaces. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society (1999; Zbl 0949.14001)]. To state the main result, let \(V\) be a complex \(c\)-dimensional vector space. For commuting operators \(B_1, \dots, B_n\) on \(V\) and a map \(I:\mathbb C \to V\), the tuple \((B_1, \dots, B_n, I)\) is \textit{stable} if there is no proper subspace \(S \subset V\) in the image of \(I\) and invariant under each \(B_i\). Then \(\text{GL} (V)\) acts on the stable tuples and the authors prove a bijection between {\parindent=0.7cm \begin{itemize}\item[1.] Ideals \(J \subset \mathbb C [x_1, \dots, x_n]\) with quotient of dimension \(c\); \item[2.] Stable tuples \((B_1, \dots, B_n,I)\) with \(\dim V = c\) modulo the action of \(\text{GL} (V)\); \item[3.] \textit{perfect extended monads}; these are complexes \[ 0 \to V_{1-n} \otimes {\mathcal O}_{\mathbb P^n} (1-n) \to V_{2-n} \otimes V_{2-n} \otimes {\mathcal O}_{\mathbb P^n} (2-n) \dots \to V_0 \otimes {\mathcal O}_{\mathbb P^n} \to V_1 \otimes {\mathcal O}_{\mathbb P^n} (1) \to 0 \] with \(V_1=V, V_0 = V^{\oplus n} \oplus \mathbb C\) and \(V_i = V^{\oplus {{n}\choose{1-i}}}\) for \(i<0\) which are exact except possibly at degree \(0\). \end{itemize}} Consequently \(\text{Hilb}^{[c]} (\mathbb C^n)\) is isomorphic to a GIT quotient of \(\mathcal C (n,c) \times \text{Hom} (\mathbb C, V)\), where \(\mathcal C (n,c)\) is the variety of \(n\) commuting \(c \times c\) matrices. The correspondence between (1) and (2) and the Hilbert scheme description is known (for example, see [\textit{F. Vaccarino}, J. Algebra 317, No. 2, 634--641 (2007; Zbl 1155.13007)]), but the correspondence with perfect extended monads is new. The authors give a similar description of the Hilbert scheme of points on any affine variety \(Y \subset \mathbb C^n\). Using recent results of \textit{K. Šivic} [Linear Algebra Appl. 437, No. 2, 393--460 (2012; Zbl 1323.15011)] the authors show irreducibility of \(\text{Hilb}^{[c]} (\mathbb C^3)\) for \(c \leq 10\), improving on the result for \(c \leq 8\) due to \textit{D. A. Cartwright} et al. [Algebra Number Theory 3, No. 7, 763--795 (2009; Zbl 1187.14005)]. On the other hand, \(\text{Hilb}^{[c]} (\mathbb C^3)\) is reducible for \(c \geq 78\) by work of \textit{A. Iarrobino} [Invent. Math. 15, 72--77 (1972; Zbl 0227.14006)].