Equivariant cohomology and local invariants of Hessenberg varieties

Nilpotent Hessenberg varieties are a family of subvarieties of the flag variety, which include the Springer varieties, the Peterson variety, and the whole flag variety. In this thesis I give a geometric proof that the cohomology of the flag variety surjects onto the cohomology of the Peterson variety; I provide a combinatorial criterion for determing the singular loci of a large family of regular nilpotent Hessenberg varieties; and I describe the equivariant cohomology of any regular nilpotent Hessenberg variety whose cohomology is generated by its degree two classes.