Free Extensions and Jordan type

Free extensions of commutative Artinian algebras were introduced by T. Harima and J. Watanabe. The Jordan type of a multiplication map $m$ by a nilpotent element of an Artinian algebra is the partition determining the sizes of the blocks in a Jordan matrix for $m$. We show that a free extension of the Artinian algebra $A$ with fibre $B$ is a deformation of the usual tensor product. This has consequences for the generic Jordan types of $A,B$ and $C$, showing that the Jordan type of $C$ is at least that of the usual tensor product in the dominance order. We give applications to algebras of relative coinvariants of linear group actions on a polynomial ring.