Finite equivalence relations on algebraic varieties and hidden symmetries (Q1770198)

Let \(X\) be an algebraic variety over an algebraically closed field \(k\) with a finite equivalence relation \(R\subset X\times X\) (that is, \(R\) is a closed finite subvariety of \(X\times X\) such that \(R\left( k\right) \subset X\left( k\right) \times X\left( k\right) \) is an equivalence relation -- a condition weaker than \(R\) being an equivalence relation in the category of \(k\) -schemes). Furthermore, if \(\varphi :X\rightarrow Y\) is a morphism of \(k\)--varieties then \(R_{\varphi }\) is defined to be \(X\times _{Y}X\) and \(\left( R_{\varphi }\right) _{\text{red}}\) is an equivalence relation. There are two major questions addressed in this paper. The first is, given \( R \), does there exist a \(Y\) and a finite morphism \(\varphi :X\rightarrow Y\) such that \(R=\left( R_{\varphi }\right) ?\) For the second, does there exist a (geometric)\ quotient \(X\rightarrow X/R?\) Suppose \(G\) is a finite group which acts on \(X\). From this we can obtain the finite equivalence relation \(R_{G}:=\left\{ \left( x,gx\right) \,| \,g\in G,x\in X\right\} \subset X\times X.\) If we further suppose \(R\) is a wide equivalence relation (i.e. every irreducible component of \(R\) projects onto a dense subset of \(X\)) and that \(X\) is normal then there exists a finite group \(G\) with a subgroup \(H\) and a normal variety \(X_{1}\) such that \( X=X_{1}/H\) and \(R\) is equal to the image of \(R_{G}\) in \(X_{1}/H\times X_{1}/H.\) This gives rise to a quotient \(X\rightarrow X/\left( R_{G}/H\right) =X_{1}/G,\) and if we let \(\psi \) be the projection \( X_{1}\rightarrow X_{1}/H\) then \(\left( R_{G}\right) _{\text{red}}=R.\) Examples are given, as is a discussion about the case where \(R\) is narrow, i.e. every irreducible component except the diagonal is not wide, as well as counterexamples in the case where \(X\) is not normal. These counterexamples are quite explicit and cover a number of things that can occur when \(X\) is not normal, e.g. a case where no such \(\varphi :X\rightarrow Y\) exists. Another example shows that if there exists a \(\varphi :X\rightarrow Y\) such that \(R\subset \left( R_{\varphi }\right) _{\text{red}}\) then it is possible that there does not exist a \(\varphi _{1}:X\rightarrow Y_{1}\) such that \( R=\left( R_{\varphi _{1}}\right) _{\text{red}}.\)