Local rigidity of quasi-regular varieties (Q974662)

Let \(T_X\) be the tangent bundle of a complex algebraic variety \(X\) over \(\mathbb{C}\). If \(H^1(X,T_X)\) vanishes, then, by the Kodaira-Spencer theory, \(X\) is locally rigid, i.e. there are not local deformation of its complex structure. When \(X\) is a flag variety \(G/P\), we have even that \(H^i(X,T_X)=0\) for any \(i\geq1\). Bien and Brion proved a partial generalization of this fact to the complete regular varieties. Given a connected reductive algebraic group \(G\), a \(G\)-variety is said regular if it is smooth, spherical (i.e. has an open orbit under the action of a Borel subgroup \(B\) of \(G\)) and without color (i.e. every irreducible \(B\)-stable divisor containing a \(G\)-orbit is \(G\)-stable). Given such a variety \(X\), denote by \(\partial X\) its boundary, i.e. the complement of the open \(G\)-orbit, and denote by \(S_X\) the action sheaf of \(X\), i.e. the subsheaf of \(T_X\) made of vector fields tangent to \(\partial X\). The hypotheses on \(X\) assure that \(\partial X\) is a smooth normal crossing divisor. \textit{F. Bien} and \textit{M. Brion} [Compos. Math. 104, No. 1, 1--26 (1996; Zbl 0910.14004)] proved that \(H^i(X,S_X)=0\) for any \(i\geq1 \). The authors generalize this last theorem to a larger class of varieties called quasi-regular (see Theorem 0.4). The rank \(n\) of a spherical variety is the rank of \(\mathbb{C}(X)^{(B)}/\mathbb{C}\). A smooth complete spherical variety is quasi-regular if: (QR1) any irreducible component of \(\partial X\) is a smooth spherical variety of rank \(n-1\) and (QR2) any \(G\)-orbit closure \(Y\) is the intersection of the irreducible components of \(\partial X\) containing \(Y\). There are the following examples of quasi-regular varieties: i) regular varieties; 2) smooth horospherical varieties (i.e. smooth spherical varieties whose open orbit is a torus bundle over a flag variety); iii) smooth spherical varieties of rank 1. The idea of the proof is the following one: given a quasi-regular variety \(X_0\), there is a succession of quasi-regular varieties \(X_0\), \(X_1,\dots,X_s\) such that \(X_i\) is obtained from \(X_{i-1}\) blowing-up an irreducible component of \(\partial X_{i-1}\) and \(X_s\) is regular (see Proposition 1.7). The author study the relation between \(S_{X_i}\) and \(S_{X_{i-1}}\) to reduce themselves to the known regular case. In [\textit{B. Pasquier}, Math. Ann. 344, No. 4, 963--987 (2009; Zbl 1173.14028)], the second author has classified the smooth projective two-orbits varieties with Picard number one that still have two orbits after blowing-up the closed orbits. In this work, Theorem 0.4 is used to prove that there is only one of such varieties which is not locally rigid (see Theorem 0.5). This variety is the only one with \(G\) of type \(G_2\). The authors prove that the non trivial local deformation of such a variety comes from a global deformation to a variety homogeneous under \(G_2\) (see Proposition 2.3). Finally it is proved a proposition about spherical varieties of rank 1 which simplifies some proofs of the above-mentioned work.