Let
G be a reductive Lie group. Take a maximal compact subgroup
K of
G and denote their Lie algebras by
and
respectively. We get a Cartan decomposition
. Let
be the complexification of
, and
the complexified decomposition. The adjoint action restricted to
K preserves the space
, hence
acts on
, where
denotes the complexification of
K. In this paper, we consider a series of small nilpotent
-orbits in
which are obtained from the dual pair
([R. Howe, Transcending classical invariant theory. J. Amer. Math. Soc. 2 (1989), no. 3, 535–552]). We explain astonishing
simple structures of these nilpotent orbits using generalized null cones. For example, these orbits have a linear ordering
with respect to the closure relation, and
acts on them in multiplicity-free manner. We clarify the
-module structure of the regular function ring of the closure of these nilpotent orbits in detail, and prove the normality.
All these results naturally comes from the analysis on the null cone
in a matrix space
W , and the double fibration of nilpotent orbits in
and
. The classical invariant theory assures that the regular functions on our nilpotent orbits are coming from harmonic polynomials
on
W with repspect to
or
. We also provide many interesting examples of multiplicity-free actions on conic algebraic varieties.
Mathematics Subject Classification (1991): 14D25, 14L30, 22E46
Received November 1, 1999 / Published online October 30, 2000