Schubert Varieties Research Articles

La théorie de Hodge des bimodules de Soergel (d'après Soergel et Elias-Williamson)

Soergel bimodules are certain bimodules over polynomial algebras, associated with Coxeter groups, and introduced by Soergel in the 1990's while studying the category O of complex semisimple Lie algebras. Even though their definition is algebraic and rather elementary, some of their crucial properties were known until recently only in the case of crystallographic Coxeter groups, where these bimodules can be interpreted in terms of equivariant cohomology of Schubert varieties. In recent work Elias and Williamson have proved these properties in full generality by showing that these bimodules possess Hodge type properties. These results imply positivity of Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomials in full generality, and provide an algebraic proof of the Kazhdan-Lusztig conjecture.

Pattern avoidance and fiber bundle structures on Schubert varieties

We give a permutation pattern avoidance criteria for determining when the projection map from the flag variety to a Grassmannian induces a fiber bundle structure on a Schubert variety. In particular, we introduce the notion of a split pattern and show that a Schubert variety has such a fiber bundle structure if and only if the corresponding permutation avoids the split patterns 3|12 and 23|1. Continuing, we show that a Schubert variety is an iterated fiber bundle of Grassmannian Schubert varieties if and only if the corresponding permutation avoids (non-split) patterns 3412, 52341, and 635241. This extends a combined result of Lakshmibai–Sandhya, Ryan, and Wolper who prove that Schubert varieties whose permutation avoids the “smooth” patterns 3412 and 4231 are iterated fiber bundles of smooth Grassmannian Schubert varieties.

Reducedness of affine Grassmannian slices in type A

We prove in type A a conjecture which describes the ideal of transversal slices to spherical Schubert varieties in the affine Grassmannian. As a corollary, we prove a modular description (due to Finkelberg-Mirković) of the spherical Schubert varieties.

The Prism tableau model for Schubert polynomials

The Schubert polynomials lift the Schur basis of symmetric polynomials into a basis for Z[x1,x2,…]. We suggest the prism tableau model for these polynomials. A novel aspect of this alternative to earlier results is that it directly invokes semistandard tableaux; it does so as part of a colored tableau amalgam. In the Grassmannian case, a prism tableau with colors ignored is a semistandard Young tableau. Our arguments are developed from the Gröbner geometry of matrix Schubert varieties.

Levi Subgroup Actions on Schubert Varieties, Induced Decompositions of their Coordinate Rings, and Sphericity Consequences

Let L w be the Levi part of the stabilizer Q w in G L N (for left multiplication) of a Schubert variety X(w) in the Grassmannian G d,N . For the natural action of L w on $\mathbb {C}[X(w)]$ , the homogeneous coordinate ring of X(w) (for the Plucker embedding), we give a combinatorial description of the decomposition of $\mathbb {C}[X(w)]$ into irreducible L w -modules; in fact, our description holds more generally for the action of the Levi part L of any parabolic subgroup Q that is contained in Q w . This decomposition is then used to show that all smooth Schubert varieties, all determinantal Schubert varieties, and all Schubert varieties in G2,N are spherical L w -varieties.

An affine quantum cohomology ring for flag manifolds and the periodic Toda lattice

Consider the generalized flag manifold $G/B$ and the corresponding affine flag manifold $\mathcal{Fl}_G$. In this paper we use curve neighborhoods for Schubert varieties in $\mathcal{Fl}_G$ to construct certain affine Gromov-Witten invariants of $\mathcal{Fl}_G$, and to obtain a family of "affine quantum Chevalley" operators $\Lambda_0, \ldots, \Lambda_n$ indexed by the simple roots in the affine root system of $G$. These operators act on the cohomology ring $\mathrm{H}^*(\mathcal{Fl}_G)$ with coefficients in $\mathbb{Z}[q_0, \ldots,q_n]$. By analyzing commutativity and invariance properties of these operators we deduce the existence of two quantum cohomology rings, which satisfy properties conjectured earlier by Guest and Otofuji for $G= \mathrm{SL}_n(\mathbb{C})$. The first quantum ring is a deformation of the subalgebra of $\mathrm{H}^*(\mathcal{Fl}_G)$ generated by divisors. The second ring, denoted $\mathrm{QH}^*_{\mathrm{af}}(G/B)$, deforms the ordinary quantum cohomology ring $\mathrm{QH}^*(G/B)$ by adding an affine quantum parameter $q_0$. We prove that $\mathrm{QH}^*_{\mathrm{af}}(G/B)$ is a Frobenius algebra, and that the new quantum product determines a flat Dubrovin connection. Further, we develop an analogue of Givental and Kim formalism for this ring and we deduce a presentation of $\mathrm{QH}^*_{\mathrm{af}}(G/B)$ by generators and relations. The ideal of relations is generated by the integrals of motion for the periodic Toda lattice associated to the dual of the extended Dynkin diagram of $G$.

Minimum distance and the minimum weight codewords of Schubert codes

We consider linear codes associated to Schubert varieties in Grassmannians. A formula for the minimum distance of these codes was conjectured in 2000 and after having been established in various special cases, it was proved in 2008 by Xiang. We give an alternative proof of this formula. Further, we propose a characterization of the minimum weight codewords of Schubert codes by introducing the notion of Schubert decomposable elements of certain exterior powers. It is shown that codewords corresponding to Schubert decomposable elements are of minimum weight and also that the converse is true in many cases. A lower bound, and in some cases, an exact formula, for the number of minimum weight codewords of Schubert codes is also given. From a geometric point of view, these results correspond to determining the maximum number of Fq-rational points that can lie on a hyperplane section of a Schubert variety in a Grassmannian with its nondegenerate embedding in a projective subspace of the Plücker projective space, and also the number of hyperplanes for which the maximum is attained.

On the intersection pairing between cycles in SU(p,q)-flag domains and maximally real Schubert varieties

An SU(p,q)-flag domain is an open orbit of the real Lie group SU(p,q) acting on the complex flag manifold associated to its complexification SL(p+q,C). Any such flag domain contains certain compact complex submanifolds, called cycles, which encode much of the topological, complex geometric and representation theoretical properties of the flag domain. This article is concerned with the description of these cycles in homology using a specific type of Schubert varieties. They are defined by the condition that the fixed point of the Borel group in question is in the closed SU(p,q)-orbit in the ambient manifold. Equivalently, the Borel group contains the AN-factor of some Iwasawa decomposition. We consider the Schubert varieties of this type which are of complementary dimension to the cycles. It is known that if such a variety has non-empty intersection with a certain base cycle, then it does so transversally (in finitely many points). With the goal of understanding this duality, we describe these points of intersection in terms of flags as well as in terms of fixed points of a given maximal torus. The relevant Schubert varieties are described in terms of Weyl group elements. Much of our work is of an algorithmic nature, but, for example in the case of maximal parabolics, i.e. Grassmannians, formulas are derived.

Minuscule Schubert Varieties and Mirror Symmetry

We consider smooth complete intersection Calabi-Yau 3-folds in minuscule Schubert varieties, and study their mirror symmetry by degenerating the ambient Schubert varieties to Hibi toric varieties. We list all possible Calabi-Yau 3-folds of this type up to deformation equivalences, and find a new example of smooth Calabi-Yau 3-folds of Picard number one; a complete intersection in a locally factorial Schubert variety ${\boldsymbol{\Sigma}}$ of the Cayley plane ${\mathbb{OP}}^2$. We calculate topological invariants and BPS numbers of this Calabi-Yau 3-fold and conjecture that it has a non-trivial Fourier-Mukai partner.

On Tangent Cones of Schubert Varieties

We consider tangent cones of Schubert varieties in the complete flag variety, and investigate the problem when the tangent cones of two different Schubert varieties coincide. We give a sufficient condition for such coincidence, and formulate a conjecture that provides a necessary condition. In particular, we show that all Schubert varieties corresponding to the Coxeter elements of the Weyl group have the same tangent cone. Our main tool is the notion of pillar entries in the rank matrix counting the dimensions of the intersections of a given flag with the standard one. This notion is a version of Fulton’s essential set. We calculate the dimension of a Schubert variety in terms of the pillar entries of the rank matrix.

Nonlinear oblique projections

We construct nonlinear oblique projections along subalgebras of nilpotent Lie algebras in terms of the Baker–Campbell–Hausdorff multiplication. We prove that these nonlinear projections are real analytic on every Schubert cell of the Grassmann manifold whose points are the subalgebras of the nilpotent Lie algebra under consideration.

Global Okounkov bodies for Bott–Samelson varieties

We use the theory of Mori dream spaces to prove that the global Okounkov body of a Bott–Samelson variety with respect to a natural flag of subvarieties is rational polyhedral. As a corollary, Okounkov bodies of effective line bundles over Schubert varieties are shown to be rational polyhedral. In particular, it follows that the global Okounkov body of a flag variety G/B is rational polyhedral. As an application we show that the asymptotic behaviour of dimensions of weight spaces in section spaces of line bundles is given by the volume of polytopes.

A comparison of Newton–Okounkov polytopes of Schubert varieties

AbstractA Newton–Okounkov body is a convex body constructed from a polarized variety with a valuation on its function field. Kaveh (respectively, the first author and Naito) proved that the Newton–Okounkov body of a Schubert variety associated with a specific valuation is identical to the Littelmann string polytope (respectively, the Nakashima–Zelevinsky polyhedral realization) of a Demazure crystal. These specific valuations are defined algebraically to be the highest term valuations with respect to certain local coordinate systems on a Bott–Samelson variety. Another class of valuations, which is geometrically natural, arises from some sequence of subvarieties of a polarized variety. In this paper, we show that the highest term valuation used by Kaveh (respectively, by the first author and Naito) and the valuation coming from a sequence of specific subvarieties of the Schubert variety are identical on a perfect basis with some positivity properties. The existence of such a perfect basis follows from a categorification of the negative part of the quantized enveloping algebra. As a corollary, we prove that the associated Newton–Okounkov bodies coincide through an explicit affine transformation.

Positivity in $T$-equivariant $K$-theory of flag varieties associated to Kac–Moody groups

Let X = G/B be the full flag variety associated to a symmetrizable Kac–Moody group G . Let T be the maximal torus of G . The T -equivariant K -theory of X has a certain natural basis defined as the dual of the structure sheaves of the finite-dimensional Schubert varieties. We show that under this basis, the structure constants are polynomials with nonnegative coefficients. This result in the finite case was obtained by Anderson–Griffeth–Miller (following a conjecture by Graham–Kumar).

Chern class of Schubert cells in the flag manifold and related algebras

We discuss a relationship between Chern–Schwartz–MacPherson classes for Schubert cells in flag manifolds, the Fomin–Kirillov algebra, and the generalized nil-Hecke algebra. We show that the nonnegativity conjecture in the Fomin–Kirillov algebra implies the nonnegativity of the Chern–Schwartz–MacPherson classes for Schubert cells in flag manifolds for type A. Motivated by this connection, we also prove that the (equivariant) Chern–Schwartz–MacPherson classes for Schubert cells in flag manifolds are certain summations of the structure constants of the equivariant cohomology of Bott–Samelson varieties. We also discuss refined positivity conjectures of the Chern–Schwartz–MacPherson classes for Schubert cells motivated by the nonnegativity conjecture in the Fomin–Kirillov algebra.

A strong Dixmier–Moeglin equivalence for quantum Schubert cells

Dixmier and Moeglin gave an algebraic condition and a topological condition for recognising the primitive ideals among the prime ideals of the universal enveloping algebra of a finite-dimensional complex Lie algebra; they showed that the primitive, rational, and locally closed ideals coincide. In modern terminology, they showed that the universal enveloping algebra of a finite-dimensional complex Lie algebra satisfies the Dixmier–Moeglin equivalence.We define quantities which measure how “close” an arbitrary prime ideal of a noetherian algebra is to being primitive, rational, and locally closed; if every prime ideal is equally “close” to satisfying each of these three properties, then we say that the algebra satisfies the strong Dixmier–Moeglin equivalence. Using the example of the universal enveloping algebra of sl2(C), we show that the strong Dixmier–Moeglin equivalence is strictly stronger than the Dixmier–Moeglin equivalence.For a simple complex Lie algebra g, a non-root of unity q≠0 in an infinite field K, and an element w of the Weyl group of g, De Concini, Kac, and Procesi have constructed a subalgebra Uq[w] of the quantised enveloping K-algebra Uq(g). These quantum Schubert cells are known to satisfy the Dixmier–Moeglin equivalence and we show that they in fact satisfy the strong Dixmier–Moeglin equivalence. Along the way, we show that commutative affine domains, uniparameter quantum tori, and uniparameter quantum affine spaces satisfy the strong Dixmier–Moeglin equivalence.

Cell Decompositions of Quiver Flag Varieties for Nilpotent Representations of the Cyclic Quiver

Generalizing Schubert cells in type A and a cell decomposition of Springer fibres in type A found by L. Fresse we prove that varieties of complete flags in nilpotent representations of a cyclic quiver admit an affine cell decomposition parametrized by multi-tableaux. We show that they carry a torus operation with finitely many fixpoints. As an application of the cell decomposition we obtain a vector space basis of certain modules (for quiver Hecke algebras of nilpotent representations of this quiver), similar modules have been studied by Kato as analogues of standard modules.

Degenerate affine Grassmannians and loop quivers

We study the connection between the affine degenerate Grassmannians in type A, quiver Grassmannians for one vertex loop quivers, and affine Schubert varieties. We give an explicit description of the degenerate affine Grassmannian of type GLn and identify it with semi-infinite orbit closure of type A2n−1. We show that principal quiver Grassmannians for the one vertex loop quiver provide finite-dimensional appro- ximations of the degenerate affine Grassmannian. Finally, we give an explicit description of the degenerate affine Grassmannian of type A1(1), propose a conjectural description in the symplectic case, and discuss the generalization to the case of the affine degenerate flag varieties.

The center of 𝒰q (𝔫ω)

ABSTRACTBased on [24], we point to a new and very useful direction of approach to a general set of problems. We exemplify it here by obtaining the center of a localization of by the covariant elements (non-mutable elements). It is based on constructions and results from quantum cluster algebras. The non-zero complex parameter q is mostly assumed not to be a root of unity, but our method also gives many details in case q is a primitive root of unity. Further, we use this to give a generalization to double Schubert Cell algebras and indicate that other families may also be handled.

Classification of smooth horizontal Schubert varieties

We show that the smooth horizontal Schubert subvarieties of a rational homogeneous variety G / P are homogeneously embedded cominuscule , and are classified by subdiagrams of a Dynkin diagram. This generalizes the classification of smooth Schubert varieties in cominuscule G / P.