On the universal family of Hilbert schemes of points on a surface (Q286563)

Let \(X\) be a smooth quasi-projective surface. It is well known by work of \textit{J. Fogarty} that the Hilbert scheme \(\mathrm{Hilb}^n (X)\) parametrizing closed subschemes of length \(n\) is a smooth irreducible variety of dimension \(2n\) [Amer. J. Math. 90, 511--521 (1968; Zbl 0176.18401)]. The corresponding universal family \(Z^n \subset \mathrm{Hilb}^n (X) \times X\) is smooth for \(n=2\) (it is isomorphic to the blow-up of \(X \times X\) along the diagonal), but singular for \(n>2\). \textit{J. Fogarty} showed that \(Z^n\) is irreducible, normal, Cohen-Macaulay and satisfies Serre's condition \(R_3\) [Am. J. Math. 95, 660--687 (1973; Zbl 0299.14020)] In this note the author gives more detailed information about the local structure of \(Z^n\), proving that its singularities are rational but not \(\mathbb Q\)-Gorenstein. He also proves that at a closed point \(\zeta = (\xi,p) \in Z^n\), the Samuel multiplicity \(\mu\) is given by \(\binom{b_2+1}{2}\), where \(b_2\) is the dimension of the socle of the local ring \({\mathcal O}_{\xi,p}\). He also proves a sharp upper bound on \(b_2\), namely \(\displaystyle b_2 \leq \lfloor \frac{\sqrt{1+8n}-1}{2} \rfloor\). This implies that the Samuel multiplicity satisfies \(\mu \leq n\), corroborating a result of \textit{M. Haiman} [J. Amer. Math. Soc. 14, No. 4, 841--1006 (2001; Zbl 1009.14001)].