Distributions with locally free tangent sheaf

Abstract

In the paper Stability of Holomorphic Foliations with Split Tangent Sheaf one finds a study of the locus $\mathrm{Dec}$ where the tangent sheaf of a {\it family} of foliations in $\mathbb{P}_{\mathbb C}^n$ is {\it decomposable}, i.e. a sum of line bundles. A prime conclusion is an ``openness'' result: once the singular locus has sufficiently large codimension, $\mathrm{Dec}$ turns out to be open. In the present paper, we study the locus $\mathrm{LF}$ of points of a family of distributions where the tangent sheaf is {\it locally free}. Through general Commutative Algebra, we show that $\mathrm{LF}$ is open provided that singularities have codimension at least three. When dealing with foliations rather than distributions, the condition on the lower bound of the singular set can be weakened by the introduction of ``Kupka'' points. We apply the available ``openness'' results to families in $\mathbb{P}_{\mathbb C}^n$ and in $\mathcal B$, the variety of Borel subgroups of a simple group. By establishing a theorem putting in bijection irreducible components of the space of two-dimensional subalgebras of a given semi-simple Lie algebra and its nilpotent orbits, we conclude that the space of foliations of {\it rank two} on $\mathbb{P}_{\mathbb C}^n$ and $\mathcal B$, may have quite many irreducible components as $n$ and $\dim \mathcal B$ grow. We also set in place several algebro-geometric foundations for the theory of families of distributions in two appendices.