Nakai conjectures for isolated homogeneous hypersurface singularities

Abstract

The long-standing Nakai Conjecture concerns a very natural question: can differential operators detect singularities on algebraic varieties? On a smooth complex variety, it is well known that the ring of differential operators is generated by derivations. Nakai asked whether the converse holds: if the ring of differential operators is generated by derivations, is the variety smooth? In this paper, we verify the Nakai Conjecture for isolated homogeneous hypersurface singularities.