The nilpotent cone for classical Lie superalgebras

Abstract

In this paper the authors introduce an analog of the nilpotent cone, ${\mathcal N}$, for a classical Lie superalgebra, ${\mathfrak g}$, that generalizes the definition for the nilpotent cone for semisimple Lie algebras. For a classical simple Lie superalgebra, ${\mathfrak g}={\mathfrak g}_{\bar{0}}\oplus {\mathfrak g}_{\bar{1}}$ with $\text{Lie }G_{\bar{0}}={\mathfrak g}_{\bar{0}}$, it is shown that there are finitely many $G_{\bar{0}}$-orbits on ${\mathcal N}$. Later the authors prove that the Duflo-Serganova commuting variety, ${\mathcal X}$, is contained in ${\mathcal N}$ for any classical simple Lie superalgebra. Consequently, our finiteness result generalizes and extends the work of Duflo-Serganova on the commuting variety. Further applications are given at the end of the paper.