The space of complete quotients (Q484748)

Let \(\mathrm{Gr}(k,n)\) be the Grassmannian variety of \(k\)-dimensional subspaces in \(\mathbb{C}^n\). Let \(\mathrm{Mor}_d\) be the set of degree \(d\) algebraic maps from \(\mathbb{CP}^1\) to \(\mathrm{Gr}(k,n)\). It is a smooth quasi-projective variety that has a compactification \(Q_d\) which parametrizes all equivalence classes of degree \(d\), rank \(n -k\) quotients of \(V_{\mathbb{CP}^1}\); the trivial vector bundle of rank \(n\) over \(\mathbb{CP}^1\). Note that \(\mathrm{Mor}_d\) corresponds to the open subvariety of such quotients that are locally free. The compactification \(Q_d\) is smooth but the boundary \(Q_d\setminus\mathrm{Mor}_d\) is singular. By iteratively blowing-up \(Q_d\) along a natural filtration of this boundary one obtains a smooth compactification \(\widetilde{Q}_d\) of \(\mathrm{Mor}_d\) such that the boundary \(\widetilde{Q}_d\setminus\mathrm{Mor}_d\) is a simple normal crossing divisor. The main theorem of this paper states that the projective variety \(\widetilde{Q}_d\) parameterizes all \textit{complete} degree \(d\), rank \(n - k\) quotients of \(V_{\mathbb{CP}^1}\); where the notion of a complete quotient is defined in the paper.