Combinatorial Tangent Space and Rational Smoothness of Schubert Varieties

Abstract

Following Contou-Carrère (Contou-Carrère,C. (1983). Géométrie des Groupes Semi-Simples,Résolutions équivariantes et Lieu Singulier de Leurs Variétés de Schubert. Thèse d’état,Université Montpellier II (published partly as,Le Lieu singulier des variétés de Schubert (1988). Adv. Math.,71:186–221)),we consider the Bott-Samelson resolution of a Schubert variety as a variety of galleries in the Tits building associated to the situation. Using Carrell and Peterson's characterization (Carrell,J. B. (1994). The Bruhat graph of a Coxeter group,a conjecture of Deodhar,and rational smoothness of Schubert varieties. Proc. Symp. in Pure Math. 56(Part I):53–61),we prove that rational smoothness of a Schubert variety can be expressed in terms of a subspace of the Zariski tangent space called,the combinatorial tangent space.

Key Words:

• Schubert varieties
• Bott-Samelson resolution
• Building
• Galleries
• Rational smoothness

2000 Mathematics Subject Classification:

• Primary 14M15

Acknowledgments