Projective normality of flag varieties and Schubert varieties (Q801997)

We prove in this paper the following results. Let G be a semisimple algebraic group over an algebraically closed field k and Q a parabolic subgroup containing a Borel subgroup B. Let X be a Schubert variety (i.e. the closure of a B orbit) in G/Q. Then (a) If L is a line bundle on G/Q such that \(H^ 0(G/Q,L)\neq 0\) then \(H^ i(X,L)=0\) for \(i>0\) and the restriction map \(H^ 0(G/Q,L)\to H^ 0(X,L)\) is surjective; (b) X is normal; (c) X is projectively normal in any embedding given by an ample line bundle on G/Q. - If we prove the results for fields of positive characteristic they follow for fields of characteristic zero by semicontinuity. When char k\(=0\) we have the absolute Frobenius morphism \(F:X\to X\) defined by raising functions on X to the p-th power. In the preprint ''Frobenius splitting and cohomology vanishing for Schubert varieties'' by \textit{V. B. Mehta} and \textit{A. Ramanathan} it was shown using duality for the Frobenius morphism of the Bott-Samelson-Demazure variety (constructed in the paper of Demazure cited below) that the p-th power map \(0_ X\to F_*0_ X\) admits a section. This quickly gives (a) for ample line bundles L. In this paper we extend this method, by a closer examination of the splitting, to the general case of \(H^ 0(G/Q,L)\neq 0\). We then deduce (b) from (a) by an inductive argument involving the \({\mathbb{P}}^ 1\)-fibrations \(G/B\to G/P\) for suitable minimal parabolic subgroups P containing B. These results prove the conjectures of \textit{M. Demazure} in his paper in Ann. Sci. Éc. Norm. Supér., IV. Sér. 7, 53-88 (1974; Zbl 0312.14009). In particular his character formula for \(H^ 0(X,L)\) for fields of arbitrary characteristic also follows. Incidentally our results uphold the main claims in Demazure's paper in spite of the falsity of proposition 11, {\S}2 of that paper.