On the irreducibility and the singularities of the Gorenstein locus of the punctual Hilbert scheme of degree 10 (Q531329)

The main result of this paper is a description of the Gorenstein locus of zero-dimensional schemes of degree 10 in projective \(N\)-space. Specifically, let \(H\) denote this open subscheme of the Hilbert scheme. The authors show that \(H\) is irreducible and give a complete description of its singular locus. The general question of ``what is the structure of the Hilbert scheme'' is very difficult and has attracted the interest of many mathematicians. Aside from Hartshorne's proof that it is always connected, not too much is known in complete generality. However, the case where the common dimension of the parametrized schemes is zero is particularly interesting, and the present paper builds on a growing pile of results in various specific cases. The paper extends previous work by the same authors which establishes the irreducibility of the same set when the degree is less than 10.