Characteristic classes of Borel orbits of square-zero upper-triangular matrices (Q2667914)

Various versions of characteristic classes assign elements in \(H^*_T(M)\) or \(K_T(M)\) to a possibly singular subvariety \(\Sigma\) in the smooth ambient space \(M\). These classes measure how singularities are forced in global families, and they are directly related with enumerative geometry. The paper under review studies certain Borel orbit closures in the vector space of upper triangular matrices \(N\). More precisely, it turns out that the square-zero upper triangular matrices is the union of finitely many Borel orbits. The authors calculate the (equivariant) cohomological and \(K\)-theoretic fundamental classes, the Chern-Schwartz-McPherson class (in \(H_T^*\)), and the motivic Chern class (in \(K_T\)) of these orbits. The method they use is an iterative resolution similar to the Bott-Samelson resolution. In the second part of the paper an intriguing relation is explored. On the one hand we have the results of the first half of the paper for \(2n \times 2n\) matrices. On the other hand there is the Schubert Calculus on double Borel orbits on \(n \times n\) matrices put into the top right corner of the \(2n \times 2n\) matrix. Up to some factors and identifications the characteristic class theory of the two settings turn out to be the same. In this approach the two sets of variables of the Rimanyi-Tarasov-Varchenko weight function, as well as the right and left operations in the Schubert Calculus of Hom\((C^n,C^n)\) are considered on an equal footing.