On some smooth projective two-orbit varieties with Picard number 1

Moduli, classification: analytic theory; relations with modular forms (14J15) Group actions on varieties or schemes (quotients) (14L30) Homogeneous spaces and generalizations (14M17)

Abstract: We classify all smooth projective horospherical varieties with Picard number 1. We prove that the automorphism group of any such variety X acts with at most two orbits and that this group still acts with only two orbits on X blown up at the closed orbit. We characterize all smooth projective two-orbits varieties with Picard number 1 that satisfy this latter property.

Review text

There are two main results in this work. 1) Let \(G\) be a reductive group over \(\mathbb{C}\). A normal \(G\)-variety is horospherical if it contains an open \(G\)-orbit isomorphic to an equivariant toric bundle over a flag \(G\)-variety. The author proves that there are five smooth horospherical varieties with Picard number one, which are non homogeneous under their automorphism group; one can easily see that they are Fano varieties. Moreover, given such a variety \(X\), \(\mathrm{Aut}(X)\) is a connected, non reductive group which acts with two orbits on both \(X\) and the blow-up of \(X\) along the closed \(\mathrm{Aut}(X)\)-orbit. One of these five varieties is isomorphic to the odd Grassmannian. This last variety has already been studied by \textit{I. A. Mihai} [Transform. Groups 12, No. 3, 573--599 (2007; Zbl 1135.14039)]. First, the author reduces itself to a list of 8 smooth horospherical varieties with Picard number 1, which are not isomorphic to a projective space, by using a combinatorial criterion for the smoothness of a horospherical variety proved by \textit{B. Pasquier} [Variétés horosphériques de Fano (thesis available at \url{http://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00111912})]. Moreover, one can suppose that the group \(G\) acting on such a variety \(X\) is simple and there are two maximal parabolic subgroup \(P(\omega_{1})\) and \(P(\omega_{2})\) of \(G\) such that: i) the open \(G\)-orbit is \(G/H\) where \(H=P(\omega_{1})\cap P(\omega_{2})\); ii) \(G\) acts with three orbits on \(X\): \(G/H\), \(G/P(\omega_{1})\) and \(G/P(\omega_{2})\). The author proves that five of these varieties are non homogeneous by showing that in these cases the normal bundle \(N_{X,G/P(\omega_{1})}\) to one of the closed orbits has no non-zero global sections (and by using the fact the fact \(H^{0}(X,N_{X,G/P(\omega _{1})})\) is isomorphic to the quotient of the Lie algebra of \(\mathrm{Aut}(X)\) by the Lie algebra of the subgroup fixing \(G/P(\omega_{1})\)). By a classic result of Blanchard the automorphism group of such a variety \(X\) is isomorphic to the automorphism group of the blow-up \(\widetilde{X}\) of \(X\) along the closed \(G\)-orbit \(G/P(\omega_{1})\) fixed by \(\mathrm{Aut}(X)\). Furthermore, \(\widetilde{X}\) is a projective bundle over the other closed \(G\)-orbit \(G/P(\omega_{2})\) of \(X\) (which is moved by \(\mathrm{Aut}(X)\)). These facts allows the authors to prove that \(\mathrm{Aut}(X)\) is isomorphic to \((G\times \mathbb{C}^{*})\ltimes H^{0}(G/P(\omega_{2}),N_{X,G/P(\omega_{2})})\) where \(H^{0}(G/P(\omega_{2}),N_{X,G/P(\omega_{2})})\) (resp. \(\mathbb{C}^{*}\)) acts on the fibres by translations (resp. by linear transformations). 2) Now, let \(G\) be any linear group over \(\mathbb{C}\). The author classifies also the smooth two-orbits varieties with Picard number one such that \(\mathrm{Aut}^{0}(X)\) acts with two orbits on both \(X\) and the blow-up of \(X\) along the closed \(\mathrm{Aut}^{0}(X)\)-orbit (a normal complete \(G\)-variety \(X\) is a two-orbits variety if \(G\) acts with 2 orbits on \(X\)). In particular, he prove that these varieties are spherical (with respect to a subgroup of \(\mathrm{Aut}(X)\)) and that the closed \(\mathrm{Aut}^{0}\)-orbit has codimension at least 2. Moreover, only two of such varieties are non horospherical. A \(G\)-variety (with \(G\) reductive) is spherical if it contains an open orbit with respect to an arbitrarily fixed Borel subgroup \(B\) of \(G\); for example the horospherical varieties are spherical. The two-orbits varieties have already been studied by \textit{D. N. Akhiezer} [Ann. Global Anal. Geom. 1, No. 1, 49--78 (1983; Zbl 0537.14033)] and by \textit{S. Cupit-Foutou} [Comment. Math. Helv. 78, No. 2, 245--265 (2003; Zbl 1086.14039)]. Akhiezer classifies the two-orbits varieties whose closed orbit has codimension 1, by showing that they correspond bijectively to compact isotropic Riemannian manifolds. See \textit{M. Brion} [in: Group actions and invariant theory, Proc. Conf., Montreal/Can. 1988, CMS Conf. Proc. 10, 31--41 (1989; Zbl 0702.20029)] for a more algebraic approach. It turns out that these varieties are all homogeneous under their full automorphism group; this is deduced by Akhiezer from the classification. While an a priori proof is obtained in \textit{F. Bien} and \textit{M. Brion} [Compos. Math. 104, No. 1, 1--26 (1996; Zbl 0910.14004)]. Cupit-Foutou classifies the the smooth two-orbits \(G\)-varieties with \(G\) semisimple; in particular she proves that these varieties are all spherical. The main ingredients in the proof of the second main theorem of this work are the first main theorem and the results in [Akhiezer, loc. cit.] and [Brion, loc. cit.].

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