Relative VGIT and an application to degenerations of Hilbert schemes (Q6158009)

In this paper, the authors study Geometric Invariant Theory (GIT) in the relative equivariant setting. Let \(f: X \to S\) be a projective morphism over an affine variety \(S\), and let \(G\) be a reductive group acting equivariantly on \(X\) and \(S\). For \(G\)-linearized line bundles \(L\) (which are not necessarily ample) on \(X\), two different generalizations of the classical (semi)stability with respect to \(L\) are investigated, both of which coincide with the classical counterpart when \(L\) is ample. The first generalization is called weak (semi)stability, and it is proved that the loci of weakly (semi)stable points satisfy nice functorial properties along two classes of projective morphisms. The second generalization is called numerical (semi)stability. Let \(L_0\) and \(L_1\) be \(G\)-linearized line bundles on \(X\), and let \(L_t = L_0^{1-t} \otimes L_1^t\) for \(0 \le t \le 1\). Assume that \(L_t\) is ample for \(0 < t \le 1\). The main theorem asserts that \[ X^{ns}(L_0) \subset X^{s}(L_t) \subset X^{ss}(L_t) \subset X^{nss}(L_0) \] for \(0 < t \le 1\), where \(X^{ns}(\cdot), X^{s}(\cdot), X^{ss}(\cdot), X^{nss}(\cdot)\) denote the loci of numerically stable, stable, semistable, numerically semistable points in \(X\) respectively. As an application to moduli problems, the authors consider degenerations of Hilbert schemes of points and give a conceptual interpretation of the (semi)stable loci of the degenerations. Section 2 is devoted to weak (semi)stability. In Section 3, the authors recall the definition of the numerical (semi)stability and verify the main theorem. Section 4 deals with the application to degenerations of Hilbert schemes of points.