Universal Series for Hilbert Schemes and Strange Duality

Abstract

Abstract We show how the “finite Quot scheme method” applied to Le Potier’s strange duality on del Pezzo surfaces leads to conjectures (valid for all smooth complex projective surfaces) relating two sets of universal power series on Hilbert schemes of points on surfaces: those for top Chern classes of tautological sheaves and those for Euler characteristics of line bundles. We have verified these predictions computationally for low order. We then give an analysis of these conjectures in small ranks. We also give a combinatorial proof of a formula predicted by our conjectures: the top Chern class of the tautological sheaf on $S^{[n]}$ associated to the structure sheaf of a point is equal to $(-1)^n$ times the nth Catalan number.