# On the reducibility of characteristic varieties

## 1. Vanishing cycles of conical sheaves.

This section presents an argument from . Let $`V`$ be a complex vector space, and suppose an object $`𝐀`$ in the derived category $`D^b(V)`$ is constructible with respect to an algebraic, $`^{}`$-conical stratification. Let $`f:V`$ be a linear function, and let $`W=f^1(0)`$. For definitions of the sheaf-theoretic concepts we use, including the vanishing cycles functor $`\varphi _f`$ and the Fourier transform $`F`$, see .

###### Theorem 1.

The multiplicity of $`[T_{\{0\}}^{}V]`$ in $`CC(𝐀)`$ is the same as the multiplicity of $`[T_{\{0\}}^{}W]`$ in $`CC(\varphi _f𝐀)`$.

###### Proof.

The Fourier transform $`F:D^b(V)D^b(V^{})`$ respects the characteristic cycle: we have $`CC(F𝐀)=CC(𝐀)`$, using the natural identification $`T^{}VV\times V^{}T^{}V^{}`$ (this is given as Exercise 9.7 in ). Since the multiplicity of the zero section $`T_V^{}^{}V^{}`$ in $`CC(F𝐀)`$ is the Euler characteristic of the stalk cohomology of $`𝐀`$ at a point in the open stratum, it will be enough to show that for generic inclusions $`i_1`$, $`i_2`$ of a point $`\{p\}`$ into $`V^{}`$ and $`W^{}`$, respectively, the restrictions $`i_1^{}F𝐀`$ and $`i_2^{}F\varphi _f𝐀`$ are isomorphic.

We can consider $`f`$ as an element of $`W^{}V^{}`$. Let $`s:WW\times W^{}`$ be given by $`s(w)=(w,f)`$. Then $`\varphi _f`$ is naturally isomorphic to following the top row in the following diagram:

Here $`\nu _W`$, $`\nu _W^{}`$ are the specialization functors (using the natural identifications $`T_WVW\times V/W`$ and $`T_W^{}W^{}\times W^{}`$), the functors marked $`F`$ are the appropriate Fourier transforms, and $`s^{}(\omega )=(\omega ,f)`$. The left quadrilateral and the triangle naturally commute by , Propositions 2.3 and 2.4, and the right hand square commutes by , Proposition 3.7.13.

Thus $`F\varphi _f𝐀(s^{})^{}\nu _W^{}F𝐀`$. It is easy now to see that $`\nu _W^{}`$ and $`(s^{})^{}`$ both leave the dimensions of the stalk cohomology at a generic point unchanged (for $`(s^{})^{}`$, use the fact that $`\nu _W^{}F𝐀`$ is conical). ∎

Similar techniques have been useful in the calculation of certain categories of perverse sheaves , .

## 2. The main result

Suppose a smooth complex variety $`V`$ carries an algebraic Whitney stratification $`𝒮`$. Denote the conormal variety by $`\mathrm{\Lambda }T^{}V`$, and let $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_S=\overline{T_S^{}V}`$ be the component of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ lying over $`S𝒮`$. Let $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ be the smooth part of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, and for each stratum $`S`$ put $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}_S=\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}\mathrm{\Lambda }_S`$.

###### Definition.

If two strata $`S`$ and $`T`$ satisfy $`dim_{}(\mathrm{\Lambda }_S\mathrm{\Lambda }_T)=dim_{}\mathrm{\Lambda }1`$, we say that $`S`$ and $`T`$ meet microlocally in codimension one.

Given an $`𝒮`$-constructible perverse sheaf $`𝐏`$ on $`V`$, we let $`_S(𝐏)`$ be the Morse or vanishing cycles local system of $`𝐏`$ at the stratum $`S`$ (for a definition, see ). It is a local system on $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}_S`$, whose dimension is, up to a sign, the multiplicity of $`[\mathrm{\Lambda }_S]`$ in $`CC(𝐏)`$.

Now suppose that $`V`$ is a complex vector space and the stratification $`𝒮`$ is $`^{}`$-conical. Let $`S\{0\}`$ be a stratum, and take a point $`xS`$. Define a loop $`\gamma `$ in $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}_S`$ by choosing a point $`(x,\xi )\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}_S`$ and letting $`\gamma (\theta )=(e^{i\theta },\xi )`$, $`\theta [0,2\pi ]`$. Note that any two such loops are homotopic.

###### Theorem 2.

Suppose that $`𝐏`$ is an $`𝒮`$-constructible perverse sheaf on $`V`$. If $`S`$ meets $`\{0\}`$ microlocally in codimension one, and the monodromy of $`_S(𝐏)`$ around $`\gamma `$ is not multiplication by $`(1)^{d1}`$, then $`_0(𝐏)0`$.

In the case $`𝐏=\mathrm{𝐈𝐂}^{}(\overline{S})`$, we get:

###### Corollary 3.

Suppose $`XV`$ is an even-dimensional conical variety, $`S`$ is the smooth locus of $`X`$, and $`\{0\}`$ and $`S`$ meet microlocally in codimension one. Then $`_0(\mathrm{𝐈𝐂}^{}(X))0`$.

###### Proof.

Just note that $`_S(\mathrm{𝐈𝐂}^{}(\overline{S}))_{\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}_S}`$. ∎

###### Proof of Theorem 2.

Since we are free to choose the point $`(x,\xi )\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}_S`$, we choose it as follows. The dual cone $`S^{}V^{}T_0^{}V`$ to $`S`$ is defined to be $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_ST_0^{}V`$; $`S`$ and $`S^{}`$ are cones over dual projective varieties in $`V`$ and $`V^{}`$. By assumption $`S^{}`$ is a divisor and so it is not contained in any $`T^{}`$ for any stratum $`TS,\{0\}`$. Let $`\xi `$ be a smooth point of $`S^{}S^{}_{RS,\{0\}}R^{}`$. Then $`L=\{vV(v,\xi )\mathrm{\Lambda }\}`$ is a line through the origin contained in $`S\{0\}`$; let $`x`$ be any nonzero point in $`L`$.

In microlocal language, the point $`(0,\xi )`$ represents a codimension one point of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$: it is a smooth point of both $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_0`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_S`$, they intersect transversely there, and it lies in no other component of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$.

Let $`f:V`$ be the linear function with $`df_x=\xi `$. Our choice of $`\xi `$ implies that $`f|_S`$ has singularities only on $`L`$ and that if we choose a normal slice $`N`$ to $`L`$ at $`xL`$, the singularity of $`f|_{NS}`$ is Morse at $`x`$.

Let $`L^{}=L\{0\}`$ and embed $`L^{}`$ into $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ by the map $`\alpha (y)=(y,df_y)=(y,\xi )`$. Put $`𝐏_f=\varphi _f(𝐏)`$; it is a conical perverse sheaf supported on $`L`$. The local system on $`L^{}`$ can be computed using stratified Morse theory:

$$𝐏_f|_L^{}=\alpha ^{}_S(𝐏),$$

where $`=\varphi _{(f|_S)}(_S)`$. But the local system $``$ is easy to compute by Picard-Lefchetz theory; its monodromy is multiplication by $`(1)^{d1}`$, where $`d=dim_{}(S)`$. Thus the monodromy of $`𝐏_f|_L^{}`$ is nontrivial.

An elementary application of the theory of perverse sheaves on a complex line (see  and the example following the proof of Theorem 3.3 in ) implies that a perverse sheaf with nontrivial monodromy around the origin must have a nonzero vanishing cycle at $`0`$; thus $`_0(𝐏_f)0`$. Then by Theorem 1, $`_0(𝐏)=_0(𝐏_f)`$, so we are done. ∎

###### Remark.

A strengthening of Theorem 1 using Morse local systems instead of characteristic cycles gives the slightly stronger conclusion that $`_0(𝐏)`$ is a nontrivial local system.

We have stated Theorem 2 assuming that the ambient variety is a vector space and the smaller stratum is a point, but it can also be applied to a pair of strata $`(S,T)`$ in a general stratified complex manifold $`V`$ with $`T\overline{S}`$, so long as the stratification is conical along $`T`$; simply intersect with a normal slice $`N`$ to $`S`$ at a point $`sS`$, or, equivalently, apply the specialization functor $`\nu _S:D^b(V)D^b(T_SV)`$ and restrict to the fiber over $`s`$.

If $`V^n`$ but the stratification of $`V`$ is not conical, one can still look at the specialization $`𝐏^{}=\nu _0(𝐏)`$, which is conical. Since $`_0(𝐏^{})_0(𝐏)`$ (see ), Theorem 2 may apply to $`𝐏^{}`$ to give information about $`𝐏`$. We cannot use this to deduce that Theorem 2 holds without the conical assumption, however. There are stratifications for which $`S`$ meets $`0`$ microlocally in codimension one, but the smooth part of the specialization $`\nu _0(\overline{S})`$ doesn’t.

For instance, if $`\overline{S}`$ is the variety $`\{(x,y,z)^3xy=z^3\}`$, the specialization $`𝐏^{}=\nu _S(\mathrm{𝐈𝐂}^{}(\overline{S}))`$ is supported on $`\{xy=0\}`$. A little calculation shows that the composition series of the perverse sheaf $`𝐏^{}`$ consists of simple intersection cohomology sheaves with constant coefficients supported on $`\{x=0\}`$, $`\{y=0\}`$, $`\{x=y=0\}`$, and $`\{(0,0,0)\}`$. If Theorem 2 applied to $`𝐏^{}`$, it would have to apply for one of these simple components, since the Morse local systems $`_S`$ functors are exact on the category of perverse sheaves. But this is clearly not the case, since all but the last have $`_0=0`$.

This singularity appears in the flag variety for $`G=G_2`$, associated to the pair of Weyl group elements $`(tst,tstst)`$, where $`s`$,$`t`$ are the reflections for the long and short simple roots, respectively.

## 3. Kashiwara and Saito’s example

In  Kashiwara and Saito gave an example of a pair of Schubert varieties $`ZY`$ in the variety of complete flags in $`^8`$ so that $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_Z`$ appears in the support of $`CC(\mathrm{𝐈𝐂}^{}(Y))`$. We recall their description of a normal slice to $`Y`$ at a generic point of $`Z`$. Let $`V^{16}`$ be the space $`\mathrm{Mat}(2\times 2,)^4`$ of $`4`$-tuples of $`2\times 2`$ complex matrices. Let $`X`$ be the variety

$$\{(A_0,A_1,A_2,A_3)Vdet(A_i)=0\text{and}A_iA_{i+1}=0\text{for all}i\},$$

where the index $`i`$ is taken modulo $`4`$. It is an $`8`$-dimensional conical subvariety of $`V`$.

We show that $`X`$ satisfies the hypotheses of Corollary 3. Let $`G=(GL_2())^4\times ^{}`$ act on $`V`$ by

$$(g_0,g_1,g_2,g_3,t)(A_0,A_1,A_2,A_3)=(tg_0A_0g_1^1,g_1A_1g_2^1,g_2A_2g_3^1,g_3A_3g_0^1).$$

Then $`X`$ is $`G`$-invariant, and in fact is the closure of a $`G`$-orbit: $`X=\overline{G(A,A,A,A)}`$, where $`A`$ is any nonzero nilpotent matrix. The open orbit is the subset of points $`(A_0,A_1,A_2,A_3)`$ in $`X`$ for which all the $`A_i`$ are nonzero.

###### Proposition 4.

The smooth part of $`X`$ meets $`\{0\}`$ microlocally in codimension one.

###### Proof.

This is equivalent to showing that the dual cone $`X^{}V^{}`$ is a divisor. Using the inner product on $`V`$ given by matrix coordinates, $`V^{}`$ is naturally identified again with $`\mathrm{Mat}(2\times 2,)^4`$, with the action of $`G`$ given by

$$(g_0,g_1,g_2,g_3,t)(A_0,A_1,A_2,A_3)=(t^1g_1A_0g_0^1,g_2A_1g_1^1,g_3A_2g_2^1,g_0A_3g_3^1).$$

Certainly $`X^{}`$ is $`G`$-stable, and it is easily checked that $`x=(I+A^t,I,I,I)`$ lies in $`X^{}`$, where again $`A`$ is any nonzero nilpotent matrix. Its stabilizer is $`G_x=\{(g,g,g,g,1)g=aI+bA^t,a0\}`$, a two-dimensional group, so $`dim_{}X^{}=172=15`$. ∎

Thus Corollary 3 applies to this example, showing that $`[\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\{0\}}]`$ appears in $`CC(\mathrm{𝐈𝐂}^{}(X))`$.

Also note that $`X`$ is a toric variety: although the maximal torus $`TSL_8()`$ which acts on the flag variety is only $`7`$-dimensional, there is a larger torus in $`G`$ which acts on $`X`$ with finitely many orbits. A laborious calculation with an algorithm from  or the equivalent formula in  (Theorem 2.12 in Chapter 10) shows that $`dim_0(\mathrm{𝐈𝐂}^{}(X))=1`$.

## 4. The Lagrangian Grassmannian

In , Boe and Fu computed the characteristic cycles $`CC(\mathrm{𝐈𝐂}^{}(Y))`$ for Schubert varieties $`Y`$ in Hermitian symmetric spaces. In the compact cases, reducible characteristic varieties appeared only for the Lagrangian Grassmannian $`X`$ of Lagrangian subspaces of a complex symplectic space $`^{2n}`$. For concreteness, suppose that the symplectic form is given by $`\omega =_{i=1}^n𝐞_i^{}𝐞_{2n+1i}^{}`$, where the $`𝐞_i^{}`$ form the dual basis to the standard basis of $`^{2n}`$.

The Schubert decomposition of $`X`$ is given as follows. Let $`B\mathrm{Sp}(^{2n},\omega )`$ be the Borel group of transformations preserving the standard flag. Given a word $`w\{\alpha ,\beta \}^n`$ of length $`n`$ in the letters $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$, we define a cell $`S_w`$ as follows. Let $`\overline{w}\{\alpha ,\beta \}^{2n}`$ be the word for which $`\overline{w}(2n+1i)\overline{w}(i)=w(i)`$ for $`1in`$. Then $`E_w=span\{𝐞_i\overline{w}(i)=\alpha \}`$ is a point in $`X`$, and we put $`S_w=BE_w`$ and $`X_w=\overline{S_w}`$. Also let $`N_w=B^{}E_w`$, where $`B^{}`$ is the opposite Borel to $`B`$; it is a normal slice to $`S_w`$ through $`E_w`$.

Let $`𝐏_w=\mathrm{𝐈𝐂}^{}(X_w)`$. Given $`v,w\{\alpha ,\beta \}^n`$, let $`m_v^w`$ be the multiplicity with which $`[\mathrm{\Lambda }_v]`$ appears in $`CC(𝐏_w)`$. Boe and Fu’s calculation of these numbers can be summarized as follows.

###### Theorem 5 (Boe and Fu , Theorem 7.1D).

$`m_v^w=0`$ or $`1`$ for any $`v,w\{\alpha ,\beta \}^n`$. It is $`1`$ if and only if there is a chain

$$X_w=X_1X_2\mathrm{}X_n=X_v$$

of Schubert varieties $`X_i=X_{w_i}`$ so that for all $`1i<n`$ the codimension $`dim_{}X_idim_{}X_{i+1}`$ is even and $`S_{w_i}`$ meets $`S_{w_{i+1}}`$ microlocally in codimension one.

Suppose that there exists a chain $`\{w_i\}`$ satisfying the conditions of this theorem. We will use Theorem 2 to give a shorter proof that $`m_v^w0`$. Let $`E_i=E_{w_i}`$, $`S_i=S_{w_i}`$, $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}_i=\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}_{S_i}`$. Assume inductively that $`m_{w_i}^w>0`$ (this is trivially true for $`i=1`$), so $`_i=_{S_i}(𝐏_w)`$ is a nonzero local system on $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}_i`$. We will show that this implies $`_{i+1}`$ is nonzero as well.

Put $`E=E_{i+1}`$, $`N=N_{w_{i+1}}`$, and $`S=NS_i`$ and let

$$𝐐=𝐏_w|_N[dim_{}S_i]\mathrm{𝐈𝐂}^{}(X_wN).$$

The degree shift makes $`𝐐`$ a perverse sheaf.

We give $`N`$ the stratification induced from $`\{S_w\}`$. Let $`\gamma `$ be a loop in $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}_S`$ as in Theorem 2. We will show that the local system $`_S(𝐐)`$ has trivial monodromy around $`\gamma `$, or equivalently, that $`_i`$ has trivial monodromy around $`\rho \gamma `$, where $`\rho :\mathrm{\Lambda }_N\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is the inverse to the homeomorphism given by restricting the natural projection $`T^{}X|_NT^{}N`$ to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }T^{}X|_N`$. We can then apply Theorem 2 to show that $`_{\{0\}}(𝐐)=_{S_{i+1}}(𝐏)0`$.

There is an action of the torus $`T=(^{})^{n+1}`$ on $`X`$ which preserves the Schubert stratification, defined by acting on $`^{2n}`$ via

$$(z_0,z_1,\mathrm{},z_n)(x_1,\mathrm{},x_{2n})=(z_1^1x_1,\mathrm{},z_n^1x_n,z_0z_nx_{n+1},\mathrm{},z_0z_1x_{2n}).$$

The $`E_w`$ are all fixed points of this action, the normal slice $`N`$ is preserved, and the induced action on $`N`$ is linear. This action makes all Schubert variety singularities conical, as the following lemma shows.

###### Lemma 6.

For any word $`w\{\alpha ,\beta \}^n`$, there is a homomorphism $`\chi _w:^{}T`$ for which the induced action of $`^{}`$ on $`N_w`$ is the conical action.

###### Proof.

Let $`\chi _w(z)=(z,z^{a_1},\mathrm{},z^{a_n})`$, where $`a_i=1`$ if $`w(i)=\beta `$, and $`a_i=0`$ if $`w(i)=\alpha `$. Checking that this gives the required action is an exercise in local Grassmannian coordinates, similar to arguments in  and . ∎

###### Proposition 7.

The loop $`\rho \gamma `$ is homotopic (in $`\pi _1(\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}_i)`$) to a loop generated by the action of a loop in $`(^{})^{n+1}`$.

###### Proof.

Acting on $`\gamma `$ by the loop $`\theta \chi _{w_{i+1}}(e^{i\theta })`$, we obtain the loop $`\chi _{w_{i+1}}^1\gamma (\theta )=(x,e^{i\theta }\xi )`$; i.e. the point in $`N`$ stays fixed and the covector goes around by a conical action. We can then slide the loop $`\rho (\chi _{w_i}^1\gamma )`$ in $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}_i`$ to get a loop of the form $`(E_i,e^{i\theta }\xi ^{})`$ for some $`\xi ^{}T_{E_i}X`$. Acting now by $`\chi _{w_i}(e^{i\theta })`$ now produces a trivial loop. ∎

The fact that the monodromy of $`_i`$ around $`\rho \gamma `$ is trivial now follows from the following proposition.

###### Proposition 8.

Let $`X`$ be a complex variety with an action of a connected algebraic group $`G`$ and a $`G`$-invariant stratification. If $`𝐏=\mathrm{𝐈𝐂}^{}(\overline{S})`$ for some stratum $`S`$, then the Morse local systems $`_T(𝐏)`$ are constant along loops generated by acting by loops in $`G`$.

###### Proof.

Since $`𝐏`$ is a $`G`$-equivariant perverse sheaf, the local systems $`_T(𝐏)`$ must also be $`G`$-equivariant. ∎