On the singularity of some special components of Springer fibers

Abstract: Let $u\in\mathrm{End}(\mathbb{C}^n)$ be nilpotent. The variety of $u$-stable complete flags is called the Springer fiber over $u$. Its irreducible components are parameterized by a set of standard Young tableaux. The Richardson (resp. Bala-Carter) components of Springer fibers correspond to the Richardson (resp. Bala-Carter) elements of the symmetric group, through Robinson-Schensted correspondence. Every Richardson component is isomorphic to a product of standard flag varieties. On the contrary, the Bala-Carter components are very susceptible to be singular. First, we characterize the singular Bala-Carter components in terms of two minimal forbidden configurations. Next, we introduce two new families of components, wider than the families of Bala-Carter components and Richardson components, and both in duality via the tableau transposition. The components in the first family are characterized by the fact that they have a dense orbit of special type under the action of the stabilizer of $u$, whereas all components in the second family are iterated fiber bundles over projective spaces.