Primitive wonderful varieties (Q269907)

Let \(G\) be a connected reductive complex algebraic group, a smooth projective \(G\)-variety \(X\) is called wonderful if it possesses an open orbit \(G x_0 \subset X\) whose complement is a union of smooth prime divisors (called the boundary divisors) with the following properties: i) the intersection of the boundary divisors is non-empty and transversal; ii) for all \(x \in X \setminus Gx_0\), the closure of \(Gx\) equals the intersection of the boundary divisors that contain \(x\). Wonderful varieties are spherical (i.e., they contain an open orbit for any Borel subgroup of \(G\)) and play a central role in the theory of spherical varieties: as shown by \textit{D. Luna} [Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 94, 161--226 (2001; Zbl 1085.14039)] the classification of spherical varieties reduces to the classification of the wonderful ones. A general set-up for a combinatorial classification of wonderful varieties was established by Luna [loc. cit.]: there he introduced the notion of spherical \(G\)-system (a combinatorial object that can be regarded as a generalization of a root system), showed how to attach a spherical \(G\)-system to any wonderful \(G\)-variety, and obtained a classification of wonderful \(G\)-varieties up to equivariant isomorphism in terms of spherical \(G\)-systems when \(G\) is of type \(\mathsf A\). With the present paper the authors complete the classification of wonderful varieties. The fact that a wonderful variety is uniquely determined up to equivariant isomorphism by its spherical system was proved by \textit{I. V. Losev} [Duke Math. J. 147, No. 2, 315--343 (2009; Zbl 1175.14035)]. Following Luna's original approach, the authors obtained then in [J. Algebra 409, 101--147 (2014; Zbl 1303.14060)] a general reduction for the existence part of the classification to a special class of spherical systems, called primitive and classified by the first named author in [Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 365, 361--407 (2013; Zbl 1279.14067)]. Therefore the classification follows by the present paper, where the authors show that every primitive spherical system corresponds to a wonderful variety. For another approach to the classification of wonderful varieties in terms of spherical systems by means of invariant Hilbert schemes see [\textit{S. Cupit-Foutou}, ``Wonderful varieties: a geometrical realization'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:0907.2852}].