Quiver Grassmannians of type extended Dynkin type D - Part 1: Schubert systems and decompositions into affine spaces

Let $Q$ be a quiver of extended Dynkin type $D$. In this first of two papers, we show that the quiver Grassmannian $Gr_e(M)$ has a decomposition into affine spaces for every dimension vector $e$ and every indecomposable representation $M$ of defect $-1$ and defect $0$, with exception of the non-Schurian representations in homogeneous tubes. We characterize the affine spaces in terms of the combinatorics of a fixed coefficient quiver for $M$. The method of proof is to exhibit explicit equations for the Schubert cells of $Gr_e(M)$ and to solve this system of equations successively in linear terms. This leads to an intricate combinatorial problem, for whose solution we develop the theory of Schubert systems. In the sequel to this paper, we extend the result of this paper to all indecomposable representations $M$ of $Q$ and determine explicit formulae for their $F$-polynomials.