Gelfand-Tsetlin polytopes and Feigin-Fourier-Littelmann-Vinberg polytopes as marked poset polytopes

Stanley (1986) showed how a finite partially ordered set gives rise to two polytopes, called the order polytope and chain polytope, which have the same Ehrhart polynomial despite being quite different combinatorially. We generalize his result to a wider family of polytopes constructed from a poset P with integers assigned to some of its elements.Through this construction, we explain combinatorially the relationship between the Gelfand-Tsetlin polytopes (1950) and the Feigin-Fourier-Littelmann-Vinberg polytopes (2010, 2005), which arise in the representation theory of the special linear Lie algebra. We then use the generalized Gelfand-Tsetlin polytopes of Berenstein and Zelevinsky (1989) to propose conjectural analogues of the Feigin-Fourier-Littelmann-Vinberg polytopes corresponding to the symplectic and odd orthogonal Lie algebras.     

Recent developments in algebraic combinatorics

We survey three recent developments in algebraic combinatorics. The first is the theory of cluster algebras and the Laurent phenomenon of Sergey Fomin and Andrei Zelevinsky. The second is the construction of toric Schur functions and their application to computing three-point Gromov-Witten invariants, by Alexander Postnikov. The third development is the construction of intersection cohomology for nonrational fans by Paul Bressler and Valery Lunts and its application by Kalle Karu to the torich-vector of a nonrational polytope. We also briefly discuss the “half hard Lefschetz theorem” of Ed Swartz and its application to matroid complexes. Partially supported by NSF grant #DMS-9988459.     

Clusters and seeds in acyclic cluster algebras

Cluster algebras are commutative algebras that were introduced by Fomin and Zelevinsky in order to model the dual canonical basis of a quantum group and total positivity in algebraic groups. Cluster categories were introduced as a representation-theoretic model for cluster algebras. In this article we use this representation-theoretic approach to prove a conjecture of Fomin and Zelevinsky, that for cluster algebras with no coefficients associated to quivers with no oriented cycles, a seed is determined by its cluster. We also obtain an interpretation of the monomial in the denominator of a non-polynomial cluster variable in terms of the composition factors of an indecomposable exceptional module over an associated hereditary algebra.

     

Permutahedra and generalized associahedra

Given a finite Coxeter system (W,S) and a Coxeter element c, or equivalently an orientation of the Coxeter graph of W, we construct a simple polytope whose outer normal fan is N. Reading's Cambrian fan Fc, settling a conjecture of Reading that this is possible. We call this polytope the c-generalized associahedron. Our approach generalizes Loday's realization of the associahedron (a type A c-generalized associahedron whose outer normal fan is not the cluster fan but a coarsening of the Coxeter fan arising from the Tamari lattice) to any finite Coxeter group. A crucial role in the construction is played by the c-singleton cones, the cones in the c-Cambrian fan which consist of a single maximal cone from the Coxeter fan.Moreover, if W is a Weyl group and the vertices of the permutahedron are chosen in a lattice associated to W, then we show that our realizations have integer coordinates in this lattice.     

Categorification of a frieze pattern determinant

Broline, Crowe and Isaacs have computed the determinant of a matrix associated to a Conway–Coxeter frieze pattern. We generalise their result to the corresponding frieze pattern of cluster variables arising from the Fomin–Zelevinsky cluster algebra of type A. We give a representation-theoretic interpretation of this result in terms of certain configurations of indecomposable objects in the root category of type A.     

Gorenstein polytopes and their stringy E-functions

Inspired by ideas from algebraic geometry, Batyrev and the first named author have introduced the stringy E-function of a Gorenstein polytope. We prove that this a priori rational function is actually a polynomial, which is part of a conjecture of Batyrev and the first named author. The proof relies on a comparison result for the lattice point structure of a Gorenstein polytope P, a face F of P and the face of the dual Gorenstein polytope corresponding to F. In addition, we study joins of Gorenstein polytopes and introduce the notion of an irreducible Gorenstein polytope. We show how these concepts relate to the decomposition of nef-partitions.     

Non-commutative integrability, paths and quasi-determinants

In previous work, we showed that the solution of certain systems of discrete integrable equations, notably Q and T-systems, is given in terms of partition functions of positively weighted paths, thereby proving the positive Laurent phenomenon of Fomin and Zelevinsky for these cases. This method of solution is amenable to generalization to non-commutative weighted paths. Under certain circumstances, these describe solutions of discrete evolution equations in non-commutative variables: Examples are the corresponding quantum cluster algebras (Berenstein and Zelevinsky (2005) [3]), the Kontsevich evolution (Di Francesco and Kedem (2010) [10]) and the T-systems themselves (Di Francesco and Kedem (2009) [8]). In this paper, we formulate certain non-commutative integrable evolutions by considering paths with non-commutative weights, together with an evolution of the weights that reduces to cluster algebra mutations in the commutative limit. The general weights are expressed as Laurent monomials of quasi-determinants of path partition functions, allowing for a non-commutative version of the positive Laurent phenomenon. We apply this construction to the known systems, and obtain Laurent positivity results for their solutions in terms of initial data.     

On the quiver Grassmannian in the acyclic case

Let A be the path algebra of a quiver Q with no oriented cycle. We study geometric properties of the Grassmannians of submodules of a given A-module M. In particular, we obtain some sufficient conditions for smoothness, polynomial cardinality and we give different approaches to Euler characteristics. Our main result is the positivity of Euler characteristics when M is an exceptional module. This solves a conjecture of Fomin and Zelevinsky for acyclic cluster algebras.     

On cluster algebras arising from unpunctured surfaces II

We study cluster algebras with principal and arbitrary coefficient systems that are associated to unpunctured surfaces. We give a direct formula for the Laurent polynomial expansion of cluster variables in these cluster algebras in terms of certain paths on a triangulation of the surface. As an immediate consequence, we prove the positivity conjecture of Fomin and Zelevinsky for these cluster algebras.Furthermore, we obtain direct formulas for F-polynomials and g-vectors and show that F-polynomials have constant term equal to 1. As an application, we compute the Euler-Poincaré characteristic of quiver Grassmannians in Dynkin type A and affine Dynkin type .     

On pedigree polytopes and Hamiltonian cycles

In this paper we define a combinatorial object called a pedigree, and study the corresponding polytope, called the pedigree polytope. Pedigrees are in one-to-one correspondence with the Hamiltonian cycles on K_n. Interestingly, the pedigree polytope seems to differ from the standard tour polytope, Q_n with respect to the complexity of testing whether two given vertices of the polytope are nonadjacent. A polynomial time algorithm is given for nonadjacency testing in the pedigree polytope, whereas the corresponding problem is known to be NP-complete for Q_n. We also discuss some properties of the pedigree polytope and illustrate with examples.     

F-Polynomials in Quantum Cluster Algebras

F-polynomials and g-vectors were defined by Fomin and Zelevinsky to give a formula which expresses cluster variables in a cluster algebra in terms of the initial cluster data. A quantum cluster algebra is a certain noncommutative deformation of a cluster algebra. In this paper, we define and prove the existence of analogous quantum F-polynomials for quantum cluster algebras. We prove some properties of quantum F-polynomials. In particular, we give a recurrence relation which can be used to compute them. Finally, we compute quantum F-polynomials and g-vectors for a certain class of cluster variables, which includes all cluster variables in type A_n\mbox{A}_{n} quantum cluster algebras.     

A polyhedral study of triplet formulation for single row facility layout problem

The single row facility layout problem (SRFLP) is the problem of arranging n departments with given lengths on a straight line so as to minimize the total weighted distance between all department pairs. We present a polyhedral study of the triplet formulation of the SRFLP introduced by Amaral [A.R.S. Amaral, A new lower bound for the single row facility layout problem, Discrete Applied Mathematics 157 (1) (2009) 183-190]. For any number of departments n, we prove that the dimension of the triplet polytope is n(n−1)(n−2)/3 (this is also true for the projections of this polytope presented by Amaral). We then prove that several valid inequalities presented by Amaral for this polytope are facet-defining. These results provide theoretical support for the fact that the linear program solved over these valid inequalities gives the optimal solution for all instances studied by Amaral.     

Cambrian lattices

For an arbitrary finite Coxeter group W, we define the family of Cambrian lattices for W as quotients of the weak order on W with respect to certain lattice congruences. We associate to each Cambrian lattice a complete fan, which we conjecture is the normal fan of a polytope combinatorially isomorphic to the generalized associahedron for W. In types A and B we obtain, by means of a fiber-polytope construction, combinatorial realizations of the Cambrian lattices in terms of triangulations and in terms of permutations. Using this combinatorial information, we prove in types A and B that the Cambrian fans are combinatorially isomorphic to the normal fans of the generalized associahedra and that one of the Cambrian fans is linearly isomorphic to Fomin and Zelevinsky's construction of the normal fan as a “cluster fan.” Our construction does not require a crystallographic Coxeter group and therefore suggests a definition, at least on the level of cellular spheres, of a generalized associahedron for any finite Coxeter group. The Tamari lattice is one of the Cambrian lattices of type A, and two “Tamari” lattices in type B are identified and characterized in terms of signed pattern avoidance. We also show that open intervals in Cambrian lattices are either contractible or homotopy equivalent to spheres.     

Grassmannians and Cluster Algebras

This paper follows the program of study initiated by S. Fominand A. Zelevinsky, and demonstrates that the homogeneous coordinatering of the Grassmannian G(k, n) is a cluster algebra of geometrictype. Those Grassmannians that are of finite cluster type areidentified and their cluster variables are interpreted geometricallyin terms of configurations of points in C P². 2000 MathematicsSubject Classification 22E46, 05Exx.     

A sweep-plane algorithm for generating random tuples in simple polytopes

A sweep-plane algorithm of Lawrence for convex polytope computation is adapted to generate random tuples on simple polytopes. In our method an affine hyperplane is swept through the given polytope until a random fraction (sampled from a proper univariate distribution) of the volume of the polytope is covered. Then the intersection of the plane with the polytope is a simple polytope with smaller dimension.

In the second part we apply this method to construct a black-box algorithm for log-concave and -concave multivariate distributions by means of transformed density rejection.

     

Perfect zero–one matrices

A zero–one matrix is called perfect if the polytope of the associated set packing problem has integral vertices only. By this definition, all totally unimodular zero–one matrices are perfect. In this paper we give a characterization of perfect zero–one matrices in terms offorbidden submatrices. Perfect zero–one matrices are closely related to perfect graphs and constitute a generalization of balanced matrices as introduced by C. Berge. Furthermore, the results obtained here bear on an unsolved problem in graph theory, the strong perfect graph conjecture, also due to C. Berge.     

A new class of facets for the Latin square polytope

Latin squares of order n have a 1-1 correspondence with the feasible solutions of the 3-index planar assignment problem (3PAP_n). In this paper, we present a new class of facets for the associated polytope, induced by odd-hole inequalities.     

Denominators in cluster algebras of affine type

The Fomin–Zelevinsky Laurent phenomenon states that every cluster variable in a cluster algebra can be expressed as a Laurent polynomial in the variables lying in an arbitrary initial cluster. We give representation-theoretic formulas for the denominators of cluster variables in cluster algebras of affine type. The formulas are in terms of the dimensions of spaces of homomorphisms in the corresponding cluster category, and hold for any choice of initial cluster.