Cohomology of hyperplane sections of (co)adjoint varieties

Abstract: In this paper we study general hyperplane sections of adjoint and coadjoint varieties. We show that these are the only sections of homogeneous varieties such that a maximal torus of the automorphism group of the ambient variety stabilizes them. We then study their geometry, provide formulas for their classical cohomology rings in terms of Schubert classes and compute the quantum Chevalley formula. This allows us to obtain results about the semi-simplicity of the (small) quantum cohomology, analogous to those holding for (co)adjoint varieties.