Picard groups of the moduli spaces of semistable sheaves I

We compute the Picard group of the moduli space $U'$ of semistable vector bundles of rank $n$ and degree $d$ on an irreducible nodal curve $Y$ and show that $U'$ is locally factorial. We determine the canonical line bundles of $U'$ and $U'_L$, the subvariety consisting of vector bundles with a fixed determinant. For rank 2, we compute the Picard group of other strata in the compactification of $U'$.