Some Lower Bounds in the B. and M. Shapiro Conjecture for Flag Varieties

The B. and M. Shapiro conjecture stated that all solutions of the Schubert Calculus problems associated with real points on the rational normal curve should be real. For Grassmannians, it was proved by Mukhin, Tarasov, and Varchenko. For flag varieties, Sottile found a counterexample and suggested that all solutions should be real under certain monotonicity conditions. In this paper, we compute lower bounds on the number of real solutions for some special cases of the B. and M. Shapiro conjecture for flag varieties, when Sottile’s monotonicity conditions are not satisfied.     

The recursive nature of cominuscule Schubert calculus

The necessary and sufficient Horn inequalities which determine the non-vanishing Littlewood-Richardson coefficients in the cohomology of a Grassmannian are recursive in that they are naturally indexed by non-vanishing Littlewood-Richardson coefficients on smaller Grassmannians. We show how non-vanishing in the Schubert calculus for cominuscule flag varieties is similarly recursive. For these varieties, the non-vanishing of products of Schubert classes is controlled by the non-vanishing products on smaller cominuscule flag varieties. In particular, we show that the lists of Schubert classes whose product is non-zero naturally correspond to the integer points in the feasibility polytope, which is defined by inequalities coming from non-vanishing products of Schubert classes on smaller cominuscule flag varieties. While the Grassmannian is cominuscule, our necessary and sufficient inequalities are different than the classical Horn inequalities.     

A fixed point formula of Lefschetz type in Arakelov geometry III: representations of Chevalley schemes and heights of flag varieties

We give a new proof of the Jantzen sum formula for integral representations of Chevalley schemes over Spec Z, except for three exceptional cases. This is done by applying the fixed point formula of Lefschetz type in Arakelov geometry to generalized flag varieties. Our proof involves the computation of the equivariant Ray-Singer torsion for all equivariant bundles over complex homogeneous spaces. Furthermore, we find several explicit formulae for the global height of any generalized flag variety. Oblatum 17-VI-1999 & 10-IX-2001?Published online: 19 November 2001     

Degenerate Affine Flag Varieties and Quiver Grassmannians

We study finite dimensional approximations to degenerate versions of affine flag varieties using quiver Grassmannians for cyclic quivers. We prove that they admit cellular decompositions parametrized by affine Dellac configurations, and that their irreducible components are normal Cohen-Macaulay varieties with rational singularities.

     

Some degenerations of Kazhdan–Lusztig ideals and multiplicities of Schubert varieties

We study Hilbert–Samuel multiplicity for points of Schubert varieties in the complete flag variety, by Gröbner degenerations of the Kazhdan–Lusztig ideal. In the covexillary case, we give a manifestly positive combinatorial rule for multiplicity by establishing (with a Gröbner basis) a reduced limit whose Stanley–Reisner simplicial complex is homeomorphic to a shellable ball or sphere. We show that multiplicity counts the number of facets of this complex. We also obtain a formula for the Hilbert series of the local ring. In particular, our work gives a multiplicity rule for Grassmannian Schubert varieties, providing alternative statements and proofs to formulae of Lakshmibai and Weyman (1990) [26], Rosenthal and Zelevinsky (2001) [37], Krattenthaler (2001) [22], Kodiyalam and Raghavan (2003) [21], Kreiman and Lakshmibai (2004) [24], Ikeda and Naruse (2009) [13] and Woo and Yong (2009) [40]. We suggest extensions of our methodology to the general case.     

Rational smoothness and fixed points of torus actions

We obtain a criterion for rational smoothness of an algebraic variety with a torus action, with applications to orbit closures in flag varieties, and to closures of double classes in regular group completions. Dedicated to the memory of Claude Chevalley     

Equivariant cobordism of flag varieties and of symmetric varieties

We obtain an explicit presentation for the equivariant cobordism ring of a complete flag variety. An immediate corollary is a Borel presentation for the ordinary cobordism ring. Another application is an equivariant Schubert calculus in cobordism. We also describe the rational equivariant cobordism rings of wonderful symmetric varieties of minimal rank.     

Restriction varieties and geometric branching rules

This paper develops a new method for studying the cohomology of orthogonal flag varieties. Restriction varieties are subvarieties of orthogonal flag varieties defined by rank conditions with respect to (not necessarily isotropic) flags. They interpolate between Schubert varieties in orthogonal flag varieties and the restrictions of general Schubert varieties in ordinary flag varieties. We give a positive, geometric rule for calculating their cohomology classes, obtaining a branching rule for Schubert calculus for the inclusion of the orthogonal flag varieties in Type A flag varieties. Our rule, in addition to being an essential step in finding a Littlewood–Richardson rule, has applications to computing the moment polytopes of the inclusion of SO(n) in SU(n), the asymptotic of the restrictions of representations of SL(n) to SO(n) and the classes of the moduli spaces of rank two vector bundles with fixed odd determinant on hyperelliptic curves. Furthermore, for odd orthogonal flag varieties, we obtain an algorithm for expressing a Schubert cycle in terms of restrictions of Schubert cycles of Type A flag varieties, thereby giving a geometric (though not positive) algorithm for multiplying any two Schubert cycles.     

Weights of mixed tilting sheaves and geometric Ringel duality

We describe several general methods for calculating weights of mixed tilting sheaves. We introduce a notion called “non-cancellation property” which implies a strong uniqueness of mixed tilting sheaves and enables one to calculate their weights effectively. When we have a certain Radon transform, we prove a geometric analogue of Ringel duality which sends tilting objects to projective objects. We apply these methods to (partial) flag varieties and affine (partial) flag varieties and show that the weight polynomials of mixed tilting sheaves on flag and affine flag varieties are essentially given by Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomials. This verifies a mixed geometric analogue of a conjecture by W. Soergel in [10].      

Rational Points in Flag Varieties over Function Fields

We give an asymptotic estimate of the number of rational points in a flag variety over function fields of bounded height associated to the anticanonical line bundle.     

Flag Hilbert schemes and moduli spaces of torsion plane sheaves

We find certain relations between flag Hilbert schemes of points on plane curves and moduli spaces of one-dimensional plane sheaves. We show that some of these moduli spaces are stably rational.     

Congruences for rational points on varieties over finite fields

We prove the existence of rational points on singular varieties over finite fields arising as degenerations of smooth proper varieties with trivial Chow group of 0-cycles. We also obtain congruences for the number of rational points of singular varieties appearing as fibres of a proper family with smooth total and base space and such that the Chow group of 0-cycles of the generic fibre is trivial. In particular this leads to a vast generalization of the classical Chevalley-Warning theorem. The above results are obtained as special cases of our main theorem which can be viewed as a relative version of a theorem of H. Esnault on the number of rational points of smooth proper varieties over finite fields with trivial Chow group of 0-cycles.     

On secant dimensions and identifiability of flag varieties

We investigate the secant dimensions and the identifiability of flag varieties parametrizing flags of subspaces of a fixed vector space. We give numerical conditions ensuring that secant varieties of flag varieties have the expected dimension, and that a general point on these secant varieties is identifiable.     

The Cohomology Ring of Weight Varieties and Polygon Spaces

We use a theorem of S. Tolman and J. Weitsman (The cohomology rings of Abelian symplectic quotients, math. DG/9807173) to find explicit formulæ for the rational cohomology rings of the symplectic reduction of flag varieties in ⁿ, or generic coadjoint orbits of SU(n), by (maximal) torus actions. We also calculate the cohomology ring of the moduli space of n points in P^k, which is isomorphic to the Grassmannian of k planes in ⁿ, by realizing it as a degenerate coadjoint orbit.     

From moment graphs to intersection cohomology

We describe a method of computing equivariant and ordinary intersection cohomology of certain varieties with actions of algebraic tori, in terms of structure of the zero- and one-dimensional orbits. The class of varieties to which our formula applies includes Schubert varieties in flag varieties and affine flag varieties. We also prove a monotonicity result on local intersection cohomology stalks. Received: 9 November 2000 / Published online: 24 September 2001     

Twisted loop groups and their affine flag varieties

We develop a theory of affine flag varieties and of their Schubert varieties for reductive groups over a Laurent power series local field k((t)) with k a perfect field. This can be viewed as a generalization of the theory of affine flag varieties for loop groups to a “twisted case”; a consequence of our results is that our construction also includes the flag varieties for Kac–Moody Lie algebras of affine type. We also give a coherence conjecture on the dimensions of the spaces of global sections of the natural ample line bundles on the partial flag varieties attached to a fixed group over k((t)) and some applications to local models of Shimura varieties.     

Springer fibers and Schubert points

Springer fibers are subvarieties of the flag variety parametrized by partitions; they are central objects of study in geometric representation theory. Schubert varieties are subvarieties of the flag variety that induce a well-known basis for the cohomology of the flag variety. This paper relates these two varieties combinatorially. We prove that the Betti numbers of the Springer fiber associated to a partition with at most three rows or two columns are equal to the Betti numbers of a specific union of Schubert varieties.     

The quantum cohomology of flag varieties and the periodicity of the Schubert structure constants

We give conditions on a curve class that guarantee the vanishing of the structure constants of the small quantum cohomology of partial flag varieties F(k ₁, ..., k _r ; n) for that class. We show that many of the structure constants of the quantum cohomology of flag varieties can be computed from the image of the evaluation morphism. In fact, we show that a certain class of these structure constants are equal to the ordinary intersection of Schubert cycles in a related flag variety. We obtain a positive, geometric rule for computing these invariants (see Coskun in A Littlewood–Richardson rule for partial flag varieties, preprint). Our study also reveals a remarkable periodicity property of the ordinary Schubert structure constants of partial flag varieties.     

A partial Horn recursion in the cohomology of flag varieties

Horn recursion is a term used to describe when non-vanishing products of Schubert classes in the cohomology of complex flag varieties are characterized by inequalities parameterized by similar non-vanishing products in the cohomology of “smaller” flag varieties. We consider the type A partial flag variety and find that its cohomology exhibits a Horn recursion on a certain deformation of the cup product defined by Belkale and Kumar (Invent. Math. 166:185–228, 2006). We also show that if a product of Schubert classes is non-vanishing on this deformation, then the associated structure constant can be written in terms of structure constants coming from induced Grassmannians.     

Odd symplectic flag manifolds

We define the odd symplectic Grassmannians and flag manifolds, which are smooth projective varieties equipped with an action of the odd symplectic group, analogous to the usual symplectic Grassmannians and flag manifolds. Contrary to the latter, which are the flag manifolds of the symplectic group, the varieties we introduce are not homogeneous. We argue nevertheless that in many respects the odd symplectic Grassmannians and flag manifolds behave like homogeneous varieties; in support of this claim, we compute the automorphism group of the odd symplectic Grassmannians and we prove a Borel-Weil-type theorem for the odd symplectic group.