Codimension One Holomorphic Distributions on the Projective Three-space

Abstract We study codimension one holomorphic distributions on the projective three-space, analyzing the properties of their singular schemes and tangent sheaves. In particular, we provide a classification of codimension one distributions of degree at most 2 with locally free tangent sheaves and show that codimension one distributions of arbitrary degree with only isolated singularities have stable tangent sheaves. Furthermore, we describe the moduli space of distributions in terms of Grothendieck’s Quot-scheme for the tangent bundle. In certain cases, we show that the moduli space of codimension one distributions on the projective space is an irreducible, nonsingular quasi-projective variety. Finally, we prove that every rational foliation and certain logarithmic foliations have stable tangent sheaves.