Invariant Subspaces of Nilpotent Operators. Level, Mean, and Colevel: The Triangle $\Bbb T(n)$

Abstract

We consider the category $\mathcal S(n)$ of all pairs $X = (U,V)$, where $V$ is a finite-dimensional vector space with a nilpotent operator $T$ with $T^n = 0$, and $U$ is a subspace of $V$ such that $T(U) \subseteq U$. Our main interest in an object $X=(U,V)$ are the three numbers $uX=\dim U$ (for the subspace), $wX=\dim V/U$ (for the factor) and $bX=\dim {\rm Ker} T$ (for the operator). Actually, instead of looking at the reference space $\Bbb R^3$ with the triples $(uX,wX,bX)$, we will focus the attention to the corresponding projective space $\Bbb T(n)$ which contains for a non-zero object $X$ the level-colevel pair {\bf pr}$X = (uX/bX,wX/bX)$ supporting the object $X$. We use $\Bbb T(n)$ to visualize part of the categorical structure of $\mathcal S(n)$: The action of the duality $D$ and the square $\tau_n^2$ of the Auslander-Reiten translation are represented on $\Bbb T(n)$ by a reflection and a rotation by $120^\circ$ degrees, respectively. Moreover for $n\geq 6$, each component of the Auslander-Reiten quiver of $\mathcal S(n)$ has support either contained in the center of $\Bbb T(n)$ or with the center as its only accumulation point. We show that the only indecomposable objects $X$ in $\mathcal S(n)$ with support having boundary distance smaller than 1 are objects with $bX=1$ which lie on the boundary, whereas any rational vector in $\Bbb T(n)$ with boundary distance at least 2 supports infinitely many indecomposable objects. At present, it is not clear at all what happens for vectors with boundary distance between 1 and 2. The use of $\Bbb T(n)$ provides even in the (quite well-understood) case $n = 6$ some surprises: In particular, we will show that any indecomposable object in $\mathcal S(6)$ lies on one of 12 central lines in $\Bbb T(6)$. The paper is essentially self-contained, all prerequisites which are needed are outlined in detail.