The singular locus of a GL-variety

Abstract

A $\mathbf{GL}$-variety is a (typically) infinite dimensional variety $X$ equipped with an action of the infinite general linear group. In recent work of the first two authors with Draisma, a candidate definition for the singular locus of $X$ was put forth. The approach there made use of auxiliary finite dimensional varieties associated to $X$. In this paper, we give a number of characterizations of the singular locus that are intrinsic to $X$. This work shows that the candidate definition is clearly correct, and helps clarify the geometric meaning of singular points.