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.     

Schubert polynomials of types A--D

Schubert polynomials of type B, C, and D have been described first by S. Billey and M. Haiman [BH] using a combinatorial method. In this paper we give a unified algebraic treatment of Schubert polynomials of types A–D in the style of the Lascoux–Schützenberger theory in type A, i.e. Schubert polynomials are generated by the application of sequences of divided difference operators to “top polynomials”. The use of the creation operators for Q-Schur and P-Schur functions allows us to give: (1) simple and natural forms of the “top polynomials”, (2) formulas for the easy computation with all divided differences, (3) recursive structures, and (4) simplified derivations of basic properties. Received: 23 July 1998     

Double Schubert polynomials for the classical groups

For each infinite series of the classical Lie groups of type B, C or D, we construct a family of polynomials parametrized by the elements of the corresponding Weyl group of infinite rank. These polynomials represent the Schubert classes in the equivariant cohomology of the appropriate flag variety. They satisfy a stability property, and are a natural extension of the (single) Schubert polynomials of Billey and Haiman, which represent non-equivariant Schubert classes. They are also positive in a certain sense, and when indexed by maximal Grassmannian elements, or by the longest element in a finite Weyl group, these polynomials can be expressed in terms of the factorial analogues of Schur's Q- or P-functions defined earlier by Ivanov.     

The degree of a Schubert variety

We study integration along Bott-Samelson cycles. As an application the degree of a Schubert variety on a flag manifold G/B is evaluated in terms of certain Cartan numbers of G.     

Quadratic degenerations of odd-orthogonal Schubert varieties

This paper is the second in a series leading to a type B_n geometric Littlewood-Richardson rule. The rule will give an interpretation of the B_n Littlewood-Richardson numbers as an intersection of two odd-orthogonal Schubert varieties and will consider a sequence of linear and quadratic deformations of the intersection into a union of odd-orthogonal Schubert varieties. This paper describes the setup for the rule and specifically addresses results for quadratic deformations, including a proof that at each quadratic degeneration, the results occur with multiplicity one. This work is strongly influenced by Vakil’s [14].     

Bioriented flags and resolutions of Schubert varieties

We use incidence relations running in two directions in order to construct a Kempf–Laksov type resolution for any Schubert variety of the complete flag manifold but also an embedded resolution for any Schubert variety in the Grassmannian. These constructions are alternatives to the celebrated Bott–Samelson resolutions. The second process led to the introduction of W-flag varieties, algebro-geometric objects that interpolate between the standard flag manifolds and products of Grassmannians, but which are singular in general. The surprising simple desingularization of a particular such type of variety produces an embedded resolution of the Schubert variety within the Grassmannian.     

Geometry of moduli spaces of rational curves in linear sections of Grassmannian Gr(2,5)

We prove that the moduli spaces of rational curves of degree at most 3 in linear sections of the Grassmannian $\mathrm{G}\mathrm{r}(2,5)$ are all rational varieties. We also study their compactifications and birational geometry.     

Adjacency of Young tableaux and the Springer fibers

We connect different results about irreducible components of the Springer fibers of type A. Firstly, we show a relation between the Spaltenstein partition of the fibers and a total order on the set of standard Young tableaux. Next, using a result of Steinberg, we connect a work of the first author to the Robinson–Schensted map. We also perform the Spaltenstein study of the relative position of the Springer fibers and -fibrations of the flag manifold. This leads us to consider the adjacency relation on the set of standard Young tableaux and to define oriented and labeled graphs with the standard Young tableaux as vertices. Using this adjacency relation, we describe some smooth irreducible components of the Springer fibers. Finally, we show that these graphs can be identified with some full subgraphs of the Bruhat graph.     

On some properties of symplectic Grothendieck polynomials

Grothendieck polynomials, introduced by Lascoux and Schützenberger, are certain K-theory representatives for Schubert varieties. Symplectic Grothendieck polynomials, described more recently by Wyser and Yong, represent the K-theory classes of orbit closures for the complex symplectic group acting on the complete flag variety. We prove a transition formula for symplectic Grothendieck polynomials and study their stable limits. We show that each of the K-theoretic Schur P-functions of Ikeda and Naruse arises from a limiting procedure applied to symplectic Grothendieck polynomials representing certain “Grassmannian” orbit closures.     

Schur type functions associated with polynomial sequences of binomial type

We introduce a class of Schur type functions associated with polynomial sequences of binomial type. This can be regarded as a generalization of the ordinary Schur functions and the factorial Schur functions. This generalization satisfies some interesting expansion formulas, in which there is a curious duality. Moreover, this class includes examples which are useful to describe the eigenvalues of Capelli type central elements of the universal enveloping algebras of classical Lie algebras.      

Stable Grothendieck polynomials and <Emphasis Type="Italic">K</Emphasis>-theoretic factor sequences

We formulate a nonrecursive combinatorial rule for the expansion of the stable Grothendieck polynomials of Fomin and Kirillov (Proc Formal Power Series Alg Comb, 1994) in the basis of stable Grothendieck polynomials for partitions. This gives a common generalization, as well as new proofs of the rule of Fomin and Greene (Discret Math 193:565–596, 1998) for the expansion of the stable Schubert polynomials into Schur polynomials, and the K-theoretic Grassmannian Littlewood–Richardson rule of Buch (Acta Math 189(1):37–78, 2002). The proof is based on a generalization of the Robinson–Schensted and Edelman–Greene insertion algorithms. Our results are applied to prove a number of new formulas and properties for K-theoretic quiver polynomials, and the Grothendieck polynomials of Lascoux and Schützenberger (C R Acad Sci Paris Ser I Math 294(13):447–450, 1982). In particular, we provide the first K-theoretic analogue of the factor sequence formula of Buch and Fulton (Invent Math 135(3):665–687, 1999) for the cohomological quiver polynomials.     

Cylindric skew Schur functions

Cylindric skew Schur functions, which are a generalisation of skew Schur functions, arise naturally in the study of P-partitions. Also, recent work of A. Postnikov shows they have a strong connection with a problem of considerable current interest: that of finding a combinatorial proof of the non-negativity of the 3-point Gromov-Witten invariants. After explaining these motivations, we study cylindric skew Schur functions from the point of view of Schur-positivity. Using a result of I. Gessel and C. Krattenthaler, we generalise a formula of A. Bertram, I. Ciocan-Fontanine and W. Fulton, thus giving an expansion of an arbitrary cylindric skew Schur function in terms of skew Schur functions. While we show that no non-trivial cylindric skew Schur functions are Schur-positive, we conjecture that this can be reconciled using the new concept of cylindric Schur-positivity.     

Equality of Schur and Skew Schur Functions

We determine the precise conditions under which any skew Schur function is equal to a Schur function over both infinitely and finitely many variables. Received May 29, 2004     

On partial polynomial interpolation

The Alexander-Hirschowitz theorem says that a general collection of k double points in Pⁿ imposes independent conditions on homogeneous polynomials of degree d with a well known list of exceptions. We generalize this theorem to arbitrary zero-dimensional schemes contained in a general union of double points. We work in the polynomial interpolation setting. In this framework our main result says that the affine space of polynomials of degree ?d in n variables, with assigned values of any number of general linear combinations of first partial derivatives, has the expected dimension if d≠2 with only five exceptional cases. If d=2 the exceptional cases are fully described.     

Skew quasisymmetric Schur functions and noncommutative Schur functions

Recently a new basis for the Hopf algebra of quasisymmetric functions QSym, called quasisymmetric Schur functions, has been introduced by Haglund, Luoto, Mason, van Willigenburg. In this paper we extend the definition of quasisymmetric Schur functions to introduce skew quasisymmetric Schur functions. These functions include both classical skew Schur functions and quasisymmetric Schur functions as examples, and give rise to a new poset LC that is analogous to Young's lattice. We also introduce a new basis for the Hopf algebra of noncommutative symmetric functions NSym. This basis of NSym is dual to the basis of quasisymmetric Schur functions and its elements are the pre-image of the Schur functions under the forgetful map χ:NSym→Sym. We prove that the multiplicative structure constants of the noncommutative Schur functions, equivalently the coefficients of the skew quasisymmetric Schur functions when expanded in the quasisymmetric Schur basis, are nonnegative integers, satisfying a Littlewood–Richardson rule analogue that reduces to the classical Littlewood–Richardson rule under χ.As an application we show that the morphism of algebras from the algebra of Poirier–Reutenauer to Sym factors through NSym. We also extend the definition of Schur functions in noncommuting variables of Rosas–Sagan in the algebra NCSym to define quasisymmetric Schur functions in the algebra NCQSym. We prove these latter functions refine the former and their properties, and project onto quasisymmetric Schur functions under the forgetful map. Lastly, we show that by suitably labeling LC, skew quasisymmetric Schur functions arise in the theory of Pieri operators on posets.     

Schur indices of association schemes

In this paper we introduce and investigate the theory of Schur indices arising from simple components of the rational adjacency algebras of association schemes and investigate methods for computing these indices.