Harder–Narasimhan filtration for rank 2 tensors and stable coverings

Abstract

We construct a Harder–Narasimhan filtration for rank 2 tensors, where there does not exist any such notion a priori, as coming from a GIT notion of maximal unstability. The filtration associated to the 1-parameter subgroup of Kempf giving the maximal way to destabilize, in the GIT sense, a point in the parameter space of the construction of the moduli space of rank 2 tensors over a smooth projective complex variety, does not depend on a certain integer used in the construction of the moduli space, for large values of the integer. Hence, this filtration is unique and we define the Harder–Narasimhan filtration for rank 2 tensors as this unique filtration coming from GIT. Symmetric rank 2 tensors over smooth projective complex curves define curve coverings lying on a ruled surface, hence we can translate the stability condition to define stable coverings and characterize the Harder–Narasimhan filtration in terms of intersection theory.