Enriques diagrams, arbitrarily near points, and Hilbert schemes (Q661143)

Consider a smooth family of irreducible surfaces \(F/Y\) and an integer \(n \geq 0\). Let us consider a \textit{sequence of arbitrarily near \(T\)-points of} \(F/Y\): it is a \((n+1)\)-tuple \((t_0, \dots, t_n)\) where \(t_0\) is a \(T\) point of \(F_T^{(0)}:=F \times_{Y} T\) and where \(t_i\) (\(i \geq 1\)) is a \(T\)-point of the blowup \(F_T^{(i)}\) of \(F_T^{(i-1)}\) at \(t_{i-1}\). These sequences form a functor in \(T\), representable by a smooth \(Y\)-scheme \(F^{(n)}\). The sequence \((t_0, \dots, t_n)\) is \textit{strict} if for each \(i,j\) with \(1 \leq j \leq i\), the image \(T^{(i)}\) of \(t_i\) is either disjoint from or contained in the strict transform of the exceptional divisor \(E_T^{(j)}\) of \(F_T^{(j)}\). To each strict sequence an unweighted Enriques diagram is associated and it is shown that the various sequences with a fixed diagram form a functor which is represented by a smooth \(Y\)-scheme. Let us continue this review with the second paragraph of the abstract: ``We equip this \(Y\)-scheme with a free action of the automorphism group of the diagram. We equip the diagram with weights, take the subgroup of those automorphisms preserving the weights, and form the corresponding quotient scheme. Our main theorem constructs a canonical universally injective map from this quotient scheme to the Hilbert scheme of \(F/Y\); further, this map is an embedding in characteristic \(0\). However, in every positive characteristic, we give an example, in Appendix B, where the map is purely inseparable.''