On a conjecture of C. T. C. Wall (Q2367476)

In 1987 the reviewer conjectured that every 2 dimensional quotient of a linear space by a reductive algebraic group (over \(\mathbb{C})\) has a quotient singularity. This paper presents a short proof of a more general result: that any quotient \(V=X/G\) \((X\) smooth affine, \(G\) reductive) can be presented as a quotient \(\mathbb{C}^ k/H\) (with \(H\) a reductive subgroup of \(G)\) such that the preimage of \(\text{Sing} V\) has codimension \(>1\) in \(\mathbb{C}^ k\), and hence \(V-\text{Sing} V\) has finite fundamental group. The key idea is that we can simply remove from \(X\) any component of codimension 1 of \(\pi^{-1}\text{Sing} V\) without altering the quotient, and then use Luna's slice theorem to reduce to the linear case, with lowered dimension.