Characters of equivariant D-modules on Veronese cones

Abstract: For d > 1, we consider the Veronese map of degree d on a complex vector space W , Ver_d : W -> Sym^d W , w -> w^d , and denote its image by Z. We describe the characters of the simple GL(W)-equivariant holonomic D-modules supported on Z. In the case when d is 2, we obtain a counterexample to a conjecture of Levasseur by exhibiting a GL(W)-equivariant D-module on the Capelli type representation Sym^2 W which contains no SL(W)-invariant sections. We also study the local cohomology modules H_Z^j(S), where S is the ring of polynomial functions on the vector space Sym^d W. We recover a result of Ogus showing that there is only one local cohomology module that is non-zero (namely in degree j = codim(Z)), and moreover we prove that it is a simple D-module and determine its character.