Nested Hilbert schemes on surfaces: virtual fundamental class (Q2308302)

The paper under review deals with the construction of virtual classes on nested Hilbert scheme of points and curves of smooth projective surfaces. Let \(S\) be a smooth projective surface, \(r>0\), \(\boldsymbol{n}=n_1,\dots,n_r\in \mathbb{Z}_{\geq 0}\) and \(\boldsymbol{\beta}=\beta_1,\dots, \beta_{r-1}\in H_2(S,\mathbb{Z})\). The closed points of the nested Hilbert scheme \(S_{\boldsymbol{\beta}}^{[\boldsymbol{n}]}\) consist of tuples of subschemes of \(S\) \[Z_1,\dots,Z_r,\quad C_1,\dots,C_{r-1} \] where \(Z_i\) is 0-dimensional of length \(n_i\), \(C_i\) is a divisor of class \(\beta_i\) and the the following nesting condition holds \[ I_{Z_i}(-C_i)\subset I_{Z_{i+1}}, \] where \(I_{Z_i}\) is the ideal sheaf of \(Z_i\). For \(S\) a smooth projective surface and \(r\geq 2\), the authors construct a virtual fundamental class \[ [S_{\boldsymbol{\beta}}^{[\boldsymbol{n}]}]^{\text{vir}}\in A_d(S_{\boldsymbol{\beta}}^{[\boldsymbol{n}]}), \quad d=n_1+n_r+\frac{1}{2}\sum_{i=0}^{r-1}\beta_i\cdot(\beta_i-c_1(\omega_S)) \] and, under suitable hypotheses on \(S\), a reduced virtual fundamental class \([S_{\boldsymbol{\beta}}^{[\boldsymbol{n}]}]^{\text{vir}}_{\text{red}}\in A_*(S_{\boldsymbol{\beta}}^{[\boldsymbol{n}]})\). This class, constructed in great generality, recovers various virtual classes already present in the literature. The main examples are for the Hilbert scheme of points \(S^{[n]}\), the Hilbert scheme of divisors \(S_\beta\), and the moduli space of stable pairs \(S^{[0,n]}_\beta\). As an application, the authors compute a closed formula for an operator introduced by Carlsson-Okounkov on Hilbert schemes of points. Define a \(K\)-theory class on \( S^{[n_1]}\times S^{[n_2]}\) \[ \mathrm{E}^{n_1,n_2}_M:=[\mathbf{R}\pi_*p^*M]-[\mathbf{R}\mathcal{H}om_\pi(\mathcal{I}^{[n_1]},\mathcal{I}^{[n_2]}\otimes p^*M)], \] where \(M\) is a line bundle on \(S\). Then \[ \sum_{n_1\geq n_2\geq 0}(-1)^{n_1+n_2}\int_{S^[n_1\geq n_2]^{\text{vir}}}i^*c(\mathrm{E}^{n_1,n_2}_M)q_1^{n_1}q_2^{n_2}=\\ \prod_{n>0}\left(1-q_2^{n-1}q_1^n\right)^{\langle K_S, K_S-M\rangle}\left(1-q_2^{n}q_1^n\right)^{\langle K_S-M, M\rangle-e(S)}, \] where \(\langle-,-\rangle\) is the Poincaré pairing and \(i:S^{[n_1\geq n_2]}\hookrightarrow S^{[n_1]}\times S^{[n_2]} \).