The nilpotent commuting variety of the Witt algebra (Q2448288)

Let \({\mathfrak g}\) be a Lie algebra over an algebraically closed field \(k\) and \({\mathcal N}\) denote the associated nilpotent cone of \({\mathfrak g}\). Beginning with the investigation of commuting pairs of matrices, the nilpotent commuting variety \({\mathcal C}({\mathcal N}) := \{(x,y) \in {\mathcal N}\times{\mathcal N}~|~ [x,y] = 0\}\) has been long studied. For example, for the Lie algebra of a reductive algebraic group in zero or good characteristic, \textit{A. Premet} [Invent. Math. 154, No. 3, 653--683 (2003; Zbl 1068.17006)] showed that \({\mathcal C}({\mathcal N})\) is equidimensional and characterized its irreducible components. In this paper, the authors consider the Witt Lie algebra \({\mathfrak g} := W_1\) under the assumption that \(p > 3\). Here \({\mathfrak g}\) admits the structure of a \(p\)-restricted Lie algebra and the nilpotent cone \({\mathcal N}\) happens to agree with the restricted nilpotent cone \({\mathcal N}_p := \{x \in {\mathfrak g}~|~ x^{[p]} = 0\}\). The authors show that \({\mathcal C}({\mathcal N})\) is reducible, equidimensional of dimension \(p\), and not normal. The irreducible components are explicitly described. A key ingredient in the proof is an explicit description of the centralizer of an arbitrary element of \({\mathfrak g}\). To obtain this latter description, the authors make use of the classification of the nilpotent orbits in \({\mathfrak g}\) under the action of its automorphism group that was obtained in previous work of the the first author with \textit{B. Shu} [Commun. Algebra 39, No. 9, 3232--3241 (2011; Zbl 1256.17002)]. The authors also consider the nilpotent commuting varieties for Borel subalgebras. The nilpotent cone for the negative Borel is only one dimensional, so the commuting variety is easily deduced. On the other hand, the problem is more complex for the positive Borel \({\mathfrak b}^+\). Similar to the full Lie algebra, the authors again show that \({\mathcal C}({\mathcal N}({\mathfrak b}^+))\) is reducible, equidimensional of dimension \(p\), and not normal. The irreducible components correspond to all but one of those from \({\mathcal C}({\mathcal N})\). Lastly, the authors observe that this may be applied to describe the spectrum of the cohomology ring of the second Frobenius kernel of the automorphism group of \({\mathfrak g}\).