Hirschowitz, A. Rank techniques and jump stratifications. (English) Zbl 0682.14009 Vector bundles on algebraic varieties, Pap. Colloq., Bombay 1984, Stud. Math., Tata Inst. Fundam. Res. 11, 159-205 (1987). [For the entire collection see Zbl 0653.00006.] Let \(u: E\to F\) be a morphism between two locally free sheaves on a smooth variety X. Then one can give a stratification of X according to the ranks of u. In this article, the author gives a survey on some tools and techniques in studying such stratification. At each point \(x\in X\), he introduces the rank-Kodaira-Spencer map as the natural map from the tangent space of X at x to Hom(Ker u(x),cok u(x)). This gives a very nice tool in studying the maximal ranks question. In particular, the author gives a simpler proof for the existence of stable rank 2 vector bundles on \({\mathbb{P}}^ 3\) with natural cohomology. He also discusses the generalization of the well-known Petri map of the theory of special divisors on curves to higher rank bundles. Reviewer: L.Ein Cited in 5 Documents MSC: 14F05 Sheaves, derived categories of sheaves, etc. (MSC2010) 14C99 Cycles and subschemes 57N80 Stratifications in topological manifolds Keywords:locally free sheaves; stratification; maximal ranks; Petri map; divisors Citations:Zbl 0653.00006 PDF BibTeX XML OpenURL