Induced nilpotent orbits and birational geometry (Q838139)

The author considers the structure and uniqueness of \(\mathbb Q\)-factorial terminalizations of nilpotent orbits of classical simple groups. It follows from the existence of minimal models for varieties of general type, see \textit{C. Birkar, P. Cascini, C. Hacon, J. McKernan} [math.AG/0610203], that every complex algebraic variety \(X\) admits a \(\mathbb Q\)-factorial terminalization, i.e. a birational projective morphism \(f:Y\rightarrow X\) with \(K_Y=f^*K_X\), where \(Y\) has only \(\mathbb Q\)-factorial terminal singularities. Now let \(G\) be a classical simple complex Lie group and \(\mathcal O\) the orbit of a nilpotent element of \(\mathfrak g\) with respect to the adjoint action of \(G\) on \(\mathfrak g\). Let \(\widetilde{\mathcal O}\) denote the normalization of the Zariski closure \(\overline{\mathcal O}\) of \(\mathcal O\) in \(\mathfrak g\). Then \(\widetilde{\mathcal O}\) has only rational Gorenstein singularities [cf. \textit{D. I. Panyushev}, Funct. Anal. Appl. 25, No. 3, 225--226 (1991; Zbl 0749.14030)], and the author gives an explicit construction of a \(\mathbb Q\)-factorial terminalization of \(\widetilde{\mathcal O}\) in terms of the Levi decomposition \(\mathfrak q=\mathfrak l\oplus\mathfrak n\) of a suitable parabolic subalgebra \(\mathfrak q\) of \(\mathfrak g\): There is a nilpotent \(L\)-orbit \(\mathcal O'\) in \(\mathfrak l\) such that \(\mathcal O\) is the induced orbit of \(\mathcal O'\) (the uniquely determined nilpotent orbit in \(\mathfrak g\) which contains a dense open subset of \(\mathfrak n +\mathcal O'\)) and the normalization of \(G\times^Q(\mathfrak n(\mathfrak q)+\mathcal O')\) is a \(\mathbb Q\)-factorial terminalization of \(\widetilde{\mathcal O}\) via the generalized Springer map \([g,z] \mapsto\) Ad\(_gz\). Any two such constructions are connected by a sequence of Mukai flops [cf. \textit{Y. Namikawa}, Advanced Studies in Pure Mathematics 45, 75--116 (2006; Zbl 1117.14018)], and if \(\widetilde{\mathcal O}\) does not have \(\mathbb Q\)-factorial terminal singularities, then every \(\mathbb Q\)-factorial terminalization of \(\widetilde{\mathcal O}\) can be constructed in this way. The proof is based on a detailed description of the set of nilpotent orbits in \(\mathfrak g\) and the Jacobson-Morozov resolution of their Zariski closure. \textit{B. Fu} [arXiv:0809.5109] has shown that the above result also holds for the exceptional simple complex Lie groups.