Root games on Grassmannians

We recall the root game, introduced in [8], which gives a fairly powerful sufficient condition for non-vanishing of Schubert calculus on a generalised flag manifold G/B. We show that it gives a necessary and sufficient rule for non-vanishing of Schubert calculus on Grassmannians. In particular, a Littlewood-Richardson number is non-zero if and only if it is possible to win the corresponding root game. More generally, the rule can be used to determine whether or not a product of several Schubert classes on Gr _l (ℂ ⁿ ) is non-zero in a manifestly symmetric way. Finally, we give a geometric interpretation of root games for Grassmannian Schubert problems. Research partially supported by an NSERC scholarship.     

Growth diagrams for the Schubert multiplication

We present a partial generalization of the classical Littlewood-Richardson rule (in its version based on Schützenberger's jeu de taquin) to Schubert calculus on flag varieties. More precisely, we describe certain structure constants expressing the product of a Schubert and a Schur polynomial. We use a generalization of Fomin's growth diagrams (for chains in Young's lattice of partitions) to chains of permutations in the so-called k-Bruhat order. Our work is based on the recent thesis of Beligan, in which he generalizes the classical plactic structure on words to chains in certain intervals in k-Bruhat order. Potential applications of our work include the generalization of the S₃-symmetric Littlewood-Richardson rule due to Thomas and Yong, which is based on Fomin's growth diagrams.     

Intersections of Schubert varieties and eigenvalue inequalities in an arbitrary finite factor

The intersection ring of a complex Grassmann manifold is generated by Schubert varieties, and its structure is governed by the Littlewood-Richardson rule. Given three Schubert varieties S₁, S₂, S₃ with intersection number equal to one, we show how to construct an explicit element in their intersection. This element is obtained generically as the result of a sequence of lattice operations on the spaces of the corresponding flags, and is therefore well defined over an arbitrary field of scalars. Moreover, this result also applies to appropriately defined analogues of Schubert varieties in the Grassmann manifolds associated with a finite von Neumann algebra. The arguments require the combinatorial structure of honeycombs, particularly the structure of the rigid extremal honeycombs. It is known that the eigenvalue distributions of self-adjoint elements a,b,c with a+b+c=0 in the factor Rω are characterized by a system of inequalities analogous to the classical Horn inequalities of linear algebra. We prove that these inequalities are in fact true for elements of an arbitrary finite factor. In particular, if x,y,z are self-adjoint elements of such a factor and x+y+z=0, then there exist self-adjoint a,b,c∈Rω such that a+b+c=0 and a (respectively, b,c) has the same eigenvalue distribution as x (respectively, y,z). A (‘complete’) matricial form of this result is known to imply an affirmative answer to an embedding question formulated by Connes. The critical point in the proof of this result is the production of elements in the intersection of three Schubert varieties. When the factor under consideration is the algebra of n×n complex matrices, our arguments provide new and elementary proofs of the Horn inequalities, which do not require knowledge of the structure of the cohomology of the Grassmann manifolds.     

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].     

Schubert unions in Grassmann varieties

We study subsets of Grassmann varieties G(l,m) over a field F, such that these subsets are unions of Schubert cycles, with respect to a fixed flag. We study unions of Schubert cycles of Grassmann varieties G(l,m) over a field F. We compute their linear span and, in positive characteristic, their number of F_q-rational points. Moreover, we study a geometric duality of such unions, and give a combinatorial interpretation of this duality. We discuss the maximum number of F_q-rational points for Schubert unions of a given spanning dimension, and as an application to coding theory, we study the parameters and support weights of the well-known Grassmann codes. Moreover, we determine the maximum Krull dimension of components in the intersection of G(l,m) and a linear space of given dimension in the Plücker space.     

A new perspective on k-triangulations

We connect k-triangulations of a convex n-gon to the theory of Schubert polynomials. We use this connection to prove that the simplicial complex with k-triangulations as facets is a vertex-decomposable triangulated sphere, and we give a new proof of the determinantal formula for the number of k-triangulations.     

Skew Schubert polynomials

We define skew Schubert polynomials to be normal form (polynomial) representatives of certain classes in the cohomology of a flag manifold. We show that this definition extends a recent construction of Schubert polynomials due to Bergeron and Sottile in terms of certain increasing labeled chains in Bruhat order of the symmetric group. These skew Schubert polynomials expand in the basis of Schubert polynomials with nonnegative integer coefficients that are precisely the structure constants of the cohomology of the complex flag variety with respect to its basis of Schubert classes. We rederive the construction of Bergeron and Sottile in a purely combinatorial way, relating it to the construction of Schubert polynomials in terms of rc-graphs.

     

Equivariant Pieri Rule for the homology of the affine Grassmannian

An explicit rule is given for the product of the degree two class with an arbitrary Schubert class in the torus-equivariant homology of the affine Grassmannian. In addition a Pieri rule (the Schubert expansion of the product of a special Schubert class with an arbitrary one) is established for the equivariant homology of the affine Grassmannians of SL _n and a similar formula is conjectured for Sp _2n and SO _2n+1. For SL _n the formula is explicit and positive. By a theorem of Peterson these compute certain products of Schubert classes in the torus-equivariant quantum cohomology of flag varieties. The SL _n Pieri rule is used in our recent definition of k-double Schur functions and affine double Schur functions.     

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.     

Local properties of Richardson varieties in the Grassmannian via a bounded Robinson-Schensted-Knuth correspondence

The Richardson variety X _α ^γ in the Grassmannian is defined to be the intersection of the Schubert variety X ^γ and opposite Schubert variety X _α . We give an explicit Gröbner basis for the ideal of the tangent cone at any T-fixed point of X _α ^γ , thus generalizing a result of Kodiyalam-Raghavan (J. Algebra 270(1):28–54, 2003) and Kreiman-Lakshmibai (Algebra, Arithmetic and Geometry with Applications, 2004). Our proof is based on a generalization of the Robinson-Schensted-Knuth (RSK) correspondence, which we call the bounded RSK (BRSK). We use the Gröbner basis result to deduce a formula which computes the multiplicity of X _α ^γ at any T-fixed point by counting families of nonintersecting lattice paths, thus generalizing a result first proved by Krattenthaler (Sém. Lothar. Comb. 45:B45c, 2000/2001; J. Algebr. Comb. 22:273–288, 2005).     

Combinatorial Tangent Space and Rational Smoothness of Schubert Varieties

Abstract

Following Contou-Carrère (Contou-Carrère,C. (1983). Géométrie des Groupes Semi-Simples,Résolutions équivariantes et Lieu Singulier de Leurs Variétés de Schubert. Thèse d’état,Université Montpellier II (published partly as,Le Lieu singulier des variétés de Schubert (1988). Adv. Math.,71:186–221)),we consider the Bott-Samelson resolution of a Schubert variety as a variety of galleries in the Tits building associated to the situation. Using Carrell and Peterson's characterization (Carrell,J. B. (1994). The Bruhat graph of a Coxeter group,a conjecture of Deodhar,and rational smoothness of Schubert varieties. Proc. Symp. in Pure Math. 56(Part I):53–61),we prove that rational smoothness of a Schubert variety can be expressed in terms of a subspace of the Zariski tangent space called,the combinatorial tangent space.     

Plactification

We study a map called plactification from reduced words to words. This map takes Coxeter-Knuth equivalence to Knuth equivalence, and has applications to the enumeration of reduced words, Schubert polynomials and certain Specht modules.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

On the normality of the rings of Schubert varieties

We prove that the cone over a Schubert variety inG/P (P being a maximal parabolic subgroup of classical type) is normal by exhibiting a 2-regular sequence inR(w) (the homogeneous coordinate ring of the Schubert varietyX(w) inG/P under the canonical protective embeddingG/P ⊂→ (p (H° G/P,L)),L being the ample generator of (PicG/P), which vanishes on the singular locus ofX(w). We also prove the surjectivity ofH° (G/Q, L) H° (X(w), L), whereQ is a classical parabolic subgroup (not necessarily maximal) ofG andL is an ample line bundle onG/Q.