Unexpected but recurrent phenomena for Quot and Hilbert schemes of points

Abstract: We investigate some aspects of the geometry of two classical generalisations of the Hilbert schemes of points. Precisely, we show that parity conjecture for $\text{Quot}_r^d\mathbb{A}^3$ already fails for $d=8$ and $r=2$ and that lots of the elementary components of the nested Hilbert schemes of points on smooth quasi-projective varieties of dimension at least 4 are generically non-reduced. We also deduce that nested Hilbert schemes of points on smooth surfaces have generically non-reduced components. Finally, we give an infinite family of elementary components of the classical Hilbert schemes of points.