Duale Varietäten von Fahnenvarietäten
(joint work with Gisela Menzel)

Let V be an irreducible representation of a semisimple algebraic group G and X the orbit of an highest weight vector in the projective spave P(V). Then X is a generalized flag variety. The dual variety of X is the set of hyperplanes in P(V) which are tangent to X.

The purpose of the paper is to determine all cases in which the dual variety is not of codimension one. When G is simple there are the following cases (upto isomorphims of G and V):

G=SL(n,k), V=kn; G=Spn, V=kn (n even); G=SL(n,k), V=\wedge2kn (n odd); G=Spin(9) or Spin(10), V=k16.

The classification for semisimple groups is easily obtained from that.

Appeared in: Commentarii Mathematici Helvetici 62 (1987) 38-61.

Available files:

Remarks:
  1. Meanwhile, this classification has been simplified by Dennis Snow, The nef value and defect of homogeneous line bundles. Transact. AMS, 340 (1993) 227-241.
  2. A careful analysis of the hyperplane sections of X where V is the adjoint representation, was the subject of another paper.
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Last updated: December 19, 2003