Locks Fit into Keys: A Crystal Analysis of Lock Polynomials

Abstract

Lock polynomials and lock tableaux are natural analogues to key polynomials and Kohnert tableaux, respectively. In this paper, we compare lock polynomials to the much-studied key polynomials and give an explicit description of a crystal structure on lock tableaux. Furthermore, we construct an injective, weight-preserving map from lock tableaux to Kohnert tableaux that intertwines with their respective crystal operators. As a result, we see that the crystal structure on lock tableaux has a natural embedding into the Demazure crystal. We also examine the conditions for which key and lock polynomials are symmetric or quasisymmetric.