The closure ordering of adjoint nilpotent orbits in \(\mathfrak{so}(p,q)\) (Q5953569)

Let \(\mathfrak O\) be a nilpotent orbit in \(\mathfrak{so}(p,q)\) under the adjoint action of the full orthogonal group \(O(p,q)\). Then the closure of \(\mathfrak O\) (with respect to the Euclidean topology) is a union of \(\mathfrak O\) and some nilpotent \(O(p,q)\)-orbits of smaller dimensions. In [Algebra, Proc. Conf., Carbondale 1980, Lect. Notes Math. 848, 63-83 (1981; Zbl 0462.22003) and Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 270, 217-252 (1982; Zbl 0488.22022)] the first author determined which nilpotent \(O(p,q)\)-orbits belong to this closure. In this paper, the authors consider the same problem for the action of the identity component \(SO(p,q)^0\) of \(O(p,q)\) on \(\mathfrak{so}(p,q)\) and propose a conjecture describing the closures of the nilpotent \(SO(p,q)^0\)-orbits. They also prove that the conjecture is true if \(\min(p,q)\leq 7\).