Symplectic singularities

A. Beauville

Published 1999-03-12Version 1

We discuss a particular class of rational Gorenstein singularities, which we call symplectic. A normal variety V has symplectic singularities if its smooth part carries a closed symplectic 2-form whose pull-back in any resolution X --> V extends to a holomorphic 2-form on X . Our main result is the classification of isolated symplectic singularities with smooth projective tangent cone. They are in one-to-one correspondence with simple complex Lie algebras: to a Lie algebra g corresponds the singularity at 0 of the closure of the minimal (nonzero) nilpotent adjoint orbit in g .