Locally free (ℙ^<i>n</i>)-modules (Q4035877)

The authors compare the structure of locally free sheaves over a complex projective space with that of finitely generated ``locally free'' modules over the ring of globally defined linear differential operators \({\mathcal D}(\mathbb{P}^ n)\). They use as fundamental tool the localization theorem of \textit{A. Beilinson} and \textit{J. Bernstein} [C. R. Acad. Sci., Paris, Sér. I 292, 15-18 (1981; Zbl 0476.14019)]. In Sémin. d'Algèbre, Dubreil-Malliavin, Proc., Paris 1987/88, Lect. Notes. Sér. Math. 1404, 201-219 (1989; Zbl 0695.16012), the authors proved that the only locally free \({\mathcal D}(\mathbb{P}^ n)\)-modules of rank one are the \(D(k):=\text{Ind}({\mathcal O}_{\mathbb{P}^ n}(k))\), for \(k\in\mathbb{Z}\), where \(\text{Ind}(M)=\Gamma(\mathbb{P}^ n\), \({\mathcal D}_{\mathbb{P}^ n}\otimes_{{\mathcal O}_{\mathbb{P}^ n}}M)\), for every \({\mathcal O}_{\mathbb{P}^ n}\)-module \(M\). The main positive result of the present paper is a Grothendieck-type splitting theorem for (most) locally free \({\mathcal D}(\mathbb{P}^ 1)\)-modules. Namely, if \(M\) is a locally free \({\mathcal D}(\mathbb{P}^ 1)\)-module that it is not projective, or it is not a generator, then there exist integers \(k,m,n\) with \(m>0\) and \(n\geq 0\), uniquely determined, such that \(M\simeq D(k)^ m\oplus D(k-1)^ n\). In the negative sense, the authors also prove that the modules \(\text{Ind}(\Omega(k))\) and \(\text{Ind}({\mathcal T}(k))\) do not split as a direct sum of locally free \({\mathcal D}_{\mathbb{P}^ n}\)-modules of rank one, for \(n\geq 2\) and \(k\in\mathbb{Z}\), where \(\Omega\) and \({\mathcal T}\) denote the tangent sheaf and the sheaf of differentials over \(\mathbb{P}^ n\). Moreover, they prove that if \(n>1\) is odd then \(\text{Ind}({\mathcal T})\) is not indecomposable in the category of locally free \({\mathcal D}(\mathbb{P}^ n)\)-modules. The paper ends with some results and conjetures about quadratic structures for locally free \(D\)- modules, in the sense of \textit{B. A. Magurn}, \textit{W. van der Kallen} and \textit{L. N. Vaserstein} [Invent. Math. 91, No. 3, 525-542 (1988; Zbl 0639.16015)].