The singular locus of semisimple Hessenberg varieties (Q1755550)

Let \(G\) be a linear, reductive algebraic group over \(\mathbb{C}\), \(B\) be a Borel subgroup, and \(\mathfrak{B}=G/B\) denote the corresponding flag variety. Let \(\mathfrak{g}\) and \(\mathfrak{b}\) denote the Lie algebras of \(G\) and \(B\) respectively, and let \(W\) be the Weyl group of \(G\). A Hessenberg space \(H\) is defined to be a subspace of \(\mathfrak{g}\) that contains \(\mathfrak{b}\) and is closed under the Lie bracket with any element of \(\mathfrak{b}\). The space \[ H_\Delta:=\mathfrak{b}\oplus\bigoplus \mathfrak{g}_{-\alpha} \] is called the standard Hessenberg space, where \(\Delta\) denotes the simple roots of \(\mathfrak{g}\) and \(\mathfrak{g}_{-\alpha}\) is the root space associated to the negative simple root \(-\alpha\in-\Delta\). Given an element \(X\in \mathfrak{g}\) and a fixed Hessenberg space \(H\), the Hessenberg variety \(\mathfrak{B}(X, H)\) is the subvariety of \(\mathfrak{B}\) consisting of all cosets \(gB\) such that \(\mathrm{Ad}(g^{-1})(X)\) is an element of \(H\). A Hessenberg variety \(\mathfrak{B}(X, H)\) is said to be semisimple (resp. nilpotent/regular) if \(X\) is a semisimple (resp. nilpotent/regular) element in \(H\). Regular semisimple Hessenberg varieties are smooth and irreducible, however, semisimple Hessenberg varieties are not necessarily smooth in general. The paper under review determines the irreducible components of semisimple Hessenberg varieties corresponding to the standard Hessenberg space in all Lie types. The authors also prove that these irreducible components are smooth and give an explicit description of their intersections, which constitute the singular locus. An example of a semisimple Hessenberg variety corresponding to another Hessenberg space which is singular and irreducible, is provided to show that results of this nature do not hold for all semisimple Hessenberg varieties.