Diane Maclagan

Smooth irreducible multigraded Hilbert schemes

Abstract: The multigraded Hilbert scheme parameterizes all ideals in a polynomial ring with a given multigraded Hilbert function. It generalizes many known examples of Hilbert schemes, such as the classic Hilbert scheme of subschemes of projective space, the Hilbert scheme of points in affine space, and the toric Hilbert scheme. While multigraded Hilbert schemes are typically highly singular, Haiman and Sturmfels conjectured that they are smooth and irreducible when the polynomial ring is k[x,y]. I will discuss joint work with Greg Smith in which we prove this conjecture.