"Examples first:"
Consider so(3,C). (Co)Adjoint Orbits can be described by equations x^2+y^2+z^2 = R.
R=0 - is nilpotent cone - algebraic closure of the orbit of nilpotent element. (It is union of two orbits - {0} and {Cone w/o {0}} ).
R$\ne$ 0 are orbits of semi-simple elements. So we have degeneration R->0 - semi-simple orbit degenerates to nilpotent.
Question Is there similar description for the other nilpotent orbits in higher dimensions e.g. for gl(n,c) ? I mean can we write some equations depending on parameters F_t(g)=0, such that for general "t" we get semi-simple orbits, but for specific values we have nilpotent orbit (more precisely their closures)? (Here "t" can be vector and F is vector-valued algebraic function).
Of course this can be done the biggest orbit - for nilpotent cone itself.
Consider matrices "M" which satisfy the condition, that their characterestic polynom is fixed with values eigs $a_i$:
$det(M-x) = (x-a_1)(x-a_2)...(x-a_n)$
For $a_i$ generic - this is semisimple orbit, but if $a_i = 0$ we get nilpotent cone.
Question Reformulated Is it possible to do the same for smaller dimensional orbits ?
As far as I heard nilpotent orbits can be described by the equations on their rank and $M^l=0$, however this does not seems to answer the question.
Part of motivation for asking is related to the following questions:
On an affine analogue of the fact $\mathbb{C}[\mathfrak{g}]^G$ is a polynomial ringOn an affine analogue of the fact $\mathbb{C}[\mathfrak{g}]^G$ is a polynomial ring
Primitive ideals of the universal enveloping algebras of affine Lie algebrasPrimitive ideals of the universal enveloping algebras of affine Lie algebras
In particular if the answer would be YES - then probably we can do the same in the "affine case" so answering the question "What replaces the concept of the nilpotent orbit in that case?"