This work is part of a project on weight bases for the irreducible representations of semisimple Lie algebras with respect to which the representation matrices of the Chevalley generators are given by explicit formulas. In the case of sl_n, the celebrated Gelfand-Tsetlin basis is the only such basis known. Using the setup of supporting graphs developed by Donnelly, we present a simple combinatorial proof of the Gelfand-Tsetlin formulas based on a rational function identity. Some properties of the Gelfand-Tsetlin basis are derived via an algorithm for solving certain equations on the lattice of semistandard Young tableaux.
We give a survey on the Littlewood-Richardson rule. Using Gelfand-Tsetlin patterns as the main machinery of our analysis, we study the interrelationship of various combinatorial descriptions of the Littlewood-Richardson rule.
We give a crystal structure on the set of Gelfand-Tsetlin patterns which parametrize bases for finite-dimensional irreducible representations of the general linear Lie algebra. The crystal data are given in closed form, expressed using tropical polynomial functions of the entries of the patterns. We prove that with this crystal structure, the natural bijection between Gelfand-Tsetlin patterns and semistandard Young tableaux is a crystal isomorphism.
This paper is a study of the polyhedral geometry of Gelfand-Tsetlin patterns arising in the representation theory $\mathfrak{gl}_n \C$ and algebraic combinatorics. We present a combinatorial characterization of the vertices and a method to calculate the dimension of the lowest-dimensional face containing a given Gelfand-Tsetlin pattern. As an application, we disprove a conjecture of Berenstein and Kirillov about the integrality of all vertices of the Gelfand-Tsetlin polytopes. We can construct for each $n\geq5$ a counterexample, with arbitrarily increasing denominators as $n$ grows, of a non-i…
We exploit the idea that the character of an irreducible finite dimensional $\mathfrak{gl}_n$-module is the sum of certain exponents of integer points in a Gelfand-Tsetlin polytope and can thus be calculated via Brion's theorem. In order to show how the result of such a calculation matches Weyl's character formula we prove some interesting combinatorial traits of Gelfand-Tsetlin polytopes. Namely, we show that under the relevant substitution the integer point transforms of all but $n!$ vertices vanish, the remaining ones being the summands in Weyl's formula.
In their study of the equivariant K-theory of the generalized flag varieties $G/P$, where $G$ is a complex semisimple Lie group, and $P$ is a parabolic subgroup of $G$, Lenart and Postnikov introduced a combinatorial tool, called the alcove paths model. It provides a model for the highest weight crystals with dominant integral highest weights, generalizing the model by semistandard Young tableaux. In this paper, we prove a simple and explicit formula describing the crystal isomorphism between the alcove paths model and the Gelfand-Tsetlin patterns model for type $A$.
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 polytopes (2010), which arise in the representation theory of the special linear Lie algebra. We then…
We determine the diameter of the 1-skeleton and the combinatorial automorphism group of any Gelfand-Tsetlin polytope GT$_λ$ associated to an integer partition $λ.$
Macdonald polynomials are an important class of symmetric functions, with connections to many different fields. Etingof and Kirillov showed an intimate connection between these functions and representation theory: they proved that Macdonald polynomials arise as (suitably normalized) vector-valued characters of irreducible representations of quantum groups. In this paper, we provide a branching rule for these characters. The coefficients are expressed in terms of skew Macdonald polynomials with plethystic substitutions. We use our branching rule to give an expansion of the characters with respe…
Gelfand-Tsetlin polytopes are prominent objects in algebraic combinatorics. The number of integer points of the Gelfand-Tsetlin polytope $\mathrm{GT}(λ)$ is equal to the dimension of the corresponding irreducible representation of $GL(n)$. It is well-known that the Gelfand-Tsetlin polytope is a marked order polytope; the authors have recently shown it to be a flow polytope. In this paper, we draw corollaries from this result and establish a general theory connecting marked order polytopes and flow polytopes.
We generalize the famous weight basis constructions of the finite-dimensional irreducible representations of $\mathfrak{sl}(n,\mathbb{C})$ obtained by Gelfand and Tsetlin in 1950. Using combinatorial methods, we construct one such basis for each finite-dimensional representation of $\mathfrak{sl}(n,\mathbb{C})$ associated to a given skew Schur function. Our constructions use diamond-colored distributive lattices of skew-shaped semistandard tableaux that generalize some classical Gelfand--Tsetlin (GT) lattices. Our constructions take place within the context of a certain programmatic study of p…
We shall present a ``linear algebraic'' proof (involving some calculations in the algebra of linear operators on a vector space of polynomials and some manipulations of determinants) of the formula for the enumeration of symmetric Gelfand--Tsetlin patterns with fixed bottom row, which was proved by Tri Lai in the context of enumerating symmetric lozenge tilings of a ``halved'' hexagon with ``dents''.
The Gelfand-Tsetlin graph is an infinite graded graph that encodes branching of irreducible characters of the unitary groups. The boundary of the Gelfand-Tsetlin graph has at least three incarnations --- as a discrete potential theory boundary, as the set of finite indecomposable characters of the infinite-dimensional unitary group, and as the set of doubly infinite totally positive sequences. An old deep result due to Albert Edrei and Dan Voiculescu provides an explicit description of the boundary; it can be realized as a region in an infinite-dimensional coordinate space. The paper contains …
Relation Gelfand-Tsetlin $\mathfrak{gl}_n$-modules were introduced in [FRZ19], and are determined by some special directed graphs and Gelfand-Tsetlin characters. In this work we constructed polyhedra associated with the class of relation modules, which includes as a particular case, any classical Gelfand-Tsetlin polytope. Following the ideas presented in [LM04] we give a characterization of $d$-faces of the associated polyhedra in terms of a matrix related to the corresponding graph.
Discrete strip-concave functions considered in this paper are, in fact, equivalent to an extension of Gelfand-Tsetlin patterns to the case when the pattern has a not necessarily triangular but convex configuration. They arise by releasing one of the three types of rhombus inequalities for discrete concave functions (or ``hives'') on a ``convex part'' of a triangular grid. The paper is devoted to a combinatorial study of certain polyhedra related to such functions or patterns, and results on faces, integer points and volumes of these polyhedra are presented. Also some relationships and applicat…
Gelfand-Tsetlin polytopes are classical objects in algebraic combinatorics arising in the representation theory of $\mathfrak{gl}_n(\mathbb{C})$. The integer point transform of the Gelfand-Tsetlin polytope $\mathrm{GT}(λ)$ projects to the Schur function $s_λ$. Schur functions form a distinguished basis of the ring of symmetric functions; they are also special cases of Schubert polynomials $\mathfrak{S}_{w}$ corresponding to Grassmannian permutations. For any permutation $w \in S_n$ with column-convex Rothe diagram, we construct a polytope $\mathcal{P}_{w}$ whose integer point transform project…
A probabilistic bijection between twenty-vertex configurations with a free west boundary and Gelfand-Tsetlin patterns avoiding three equal entries in a row
Let $P$ be the Gelfand--Tsetlin polytope defined by the skew shape $λ/μ$ and weight $w$. In the case corresponding to a standard Young tableau, we completely characterize for which shapes $λ/μ$ the polytope $P$ is integral. Furthermore, we show that $P$ is a compressed polytope whenever it is integral and corresponds to a standard Young tableau. We conjecture that a similar property hold for arbitrary $w$, namely that $P$ has the integer decomposition property whenever it is integral. Finally, a natural partial ordering on GT-polytopes is introduced that provides information about integrality …
A continuation of the joint work by Vadim Gorin and the author, J. Funct. Anal. 270 (2016), 375-418; arXiv:1504.06832. The extended Gelfand-Tsetlin graph, introduced in that paper, is a novel combinatorial object. Its q-boundary is formed by infinite point configurations on a two-sided q-lattice. The q-boundary carries a continuous family of probability measures that are a q-analogue of the so-called zw-measures, which originated in the problem of harmonic analysis on the infinite-dimensional unitary group. In the present paper, it is proved that certain transition Markov kernels, linked to th…
In the recent paper [arXiv:1109.1412], Borodin and Olshanski have presented a novel proof of the celebrated Edrei-Voiculescu theorem which describes the boundary of the Gelfand-Tsetlin graph as a region in an infinite-dimensional coordinate space. This graph encodes branching of irreducible characters of finite-dimensional unitary groups. Points of the boundary of the Gelfand-Tsetlin graph can be identified with finite indecomposable (= extreme) characters of the infinite-dimensional unitary group. An equivalent description identifies the boundary with the set of doubly infinite totally nonneg…
We introduce Macdonald characters and use algebraic properties of Macdonald polynomials to study them. As a result, we produce several formulas for Macdonald characters, which are generalizations of those obtained by Gorin and Panova in [Ann. Probab. 43 (2015), 3052-3132, arXiv:1301.0634], and are expected to provide tools for the study of statistical mechanical models, representation theory and random matrices. As first application of our formulas, we characterize the boundary of the $(q,t)$-deformation of the Gelfand-Tsetlin graph when $t=q^θ$ and $θ$ is a positive integer.
The de Bruijn-Tengbergen-Kruyswijk (BTK) construction is a simple algorithm that produces an explicit symmetric chain decomposition of a product of chains. We linearize the BTK algorithm and show that it produces an explicit symmetric Jordan basis (SJB). In the special case of a Boolean algebra the resulting SJB is orthogonal with respect to the standard inner product and, moreover, we can write down an explicit formula for the ratio of the lengths of the successive vectors in these chains (i.e., the singular values). This yields a new, constructive proof of the explicit block diagonalization …
Using Okounkov's $q$-integral representation of Macdonald polynomials we construct an infinite sequence $Ω_1,Ω_2,Ω_3,\dots$ of countable sets linked by transition probabilities from $Ω_N$ to $Ω_{N-1}$ for each $N=2,3,\dots$. The elements of the sets $Ω_N$ are the vertices of the extended Gelfand-Tsetlin graph, and the transition probabilities depend on the two Macdonald parameters, $q$ and $t$. These data determine a family of Markov chains, and the main result is the description of their entrance boundaries. This work has its origin in asymptotic representation theory. In the subsequent paper…
By rewriting the famous hook-content formula it easily follows that there are $\prod\limits_{1 \le i < j \le n} \frac{k_j - k_i + j -i}{j-i}$ semistandard tableaux of shape $(k_n,k_{n-1},...,k_1)$ with entries in $\{1,2,...,n\}$ or, equivalently, Gelfand-Tsetlin patterns with bottom row $(k_1,...,k_n)$. In this article we introduce certain sequences of labeled trees, the signed enumeration of which is also given by this formula. In these trees, vertices as well as edges are labeled, the crucial condition being that each edge label lies between the vertex labels of the two endpoints of the edge…
The thesis focuses on processes on symplectic Gelfand-Tsetlin patterns. In chapter 4, a process with dynamics inspired by the Berele correspondence [Ber86] is presented. It is proved that the shape of the pattern is a Doob $h$-transform of independent random walks with $h$ given by the symplectic Schur function. This is followed by an extension to a $q$-weighted version. This randomised version has itself a branching structure and is related to a $q$-deformation of the $so_{2n+1}$-Whittaker functions. In chapter 5, we present a fully randomised process. This process $q$-deforms a process propo…
The Gelfand-Tsetlin and the Feigin-Fourier-Littelmann-Vinberg polytopes for the Grassmannians are defined, from the perspective of representation theory, to parametrize certain bases for highest weight irreducible modules. These polytopes are Newton-Okounkov bodies for the Grassmannian and, in particular, the GT-polytope is an example of a string polytope. The polytopes admit a combinatorial description as the Stanley's order and chain polytopes of a certain poset, as shown by Ardila, Bliem and Salaza. We prove that these polytopes occur among matching field polytopes. Moreover, we show that t…
A Gelfand-Tsetlin scheme of depth N is a triangular array with m integers at level m, m=1,...,N, subject to certain interlacing constraints. We study the ensemble of uniformly random Gelfand-Tsetlin schemes with arbitrary fixed N-th row. We obtain an explicit double contour integral expression for the determinantal correlation kernel of this ensemble (and also of its q-deformation). This provides new tools for asymptotic analysis of uniformly random lozenge tilings of polygons on the triangular lattice; or, equivalently, of random stepped surfaces. We work with a class of polygons which allows…
We study the combinatorial structure of the irreducible characters of the classical groups ${\rm GL}_n(\mathbb{C})$, ${\rm SO}_{2n+1}(\mathbb{C})$, ${\rm Sp}_{2n}(\mathbb{C})$, ${\rm SO}_{2n}(\mathbb{C})$ and the "non-classical" odd symplectic group ${\rm Sp}_{2n+1}(\mathbb{C})$, finding new connections to the probabilistic model of Last Passage Percolation (LPP). Perturbing the expressions of these characters as generating functions of Gelfand-Tsetlin patterns, we produce two families of symmetric polynomials that interpolate between characters of ${\rm Sp}_{2n}(\mathbb{C})$ and ${\rm SO}_{2n…
A Gelafand model for wreath products $\Z_r\wr S_n$ is constructed. The proof relies on a combinatorial interpretation of the characters of the model, extending a classical result of Frobenius and Schur.
In 1992 Gelfand and MacPherson gave a local and combinatorial formula for the Pontrjagin classes of a differential manifold. We give an expanded version of their discussion and highlight the origins of combinatorial differential manifolds in their work.
A theorem due to Tokuyama expresses Schur polynomials in terms of Gelfand-Tsetlin patterns, providing a deformation of the Weyl character formula and two other classical results, Stanley's formula for the Schur $q$-polynomials and Gelfand's parametrization for the Schur polynomial. We generalize Tokuyama's formula to the Hall-Littlewood polynomials by extending Tokuyama's statistics. Our result, in addition to specializing to Tokuyama's result and the aforementioned classical results, also yields connections to the monomial symmetric function and a new deformation of Stanley's formula.
We make progress on a question of Skandera by showing that a product of Kazhdan-Lusztig basis elements indexed by maximal elements of parabolic subgroups admits a Kazhdan-Lusztig basis element as a quotient arising from operations in the Schur algebroid if and only if the sequence of parabolic subgroups satisfy both a rigidity condition and a combinatorial criterion. For Weyl groups, the rigidity condition specializes to a necessary condition for smallness of Gelfand-MacPherson resolutions. For Schubert varieties indexed by 4231-avoiding permutations, we derive a stronger necessary condition t…
We prove that the boundary of the Hall-Littlewood $t$-deformation of the Gelfand-Tsetlin graph is parametrized by infinite integer signatures, extending results of Gorin and Cuenca on boundaries of related deformed Gelfand-Tsetlin graphs. In the special case when $1/t$ is a prime $p$ we use this to recover results of Bufetov-Qiu and Assiotis on infinite $p$-adic random matrices, placing them in the general context of branching graphs derived from symmetric functions. Our methods rely on explicit formulas for certain skew Hall-Littlewood polynomials. As a separate corollary to these, we obtain …
We consider $U_{q}(\mathfrak{gl}_{n})$, the quantum group of type $A$ for $|q| = 1$, $q$ generic. We provide formulas for signature characters of irreducible finite-dimensional highest weight modules and Verma modules. In both cases, the technique involves combinatorics of the Gelfand-Tsetlin bases. As an application, we obtain information about unitarity of finite-dimensional irreducible representations for arbitrary $q$: we classify the continuous spectrum of the unitarity locus. We also recover some known results in the classical limit $q \rightarrow 1$ that were obtained by different means…
Several combinatorial actions of the affine Weyl group of type $\widetilde{C}_{n}$ on triangulations, trees, words and permutations are compared. Addressing a question of David Vogan, we show that, modulo a natural involution, these permutation representations are multiplicity-free. The proof uses a general construction of Gelfand subgroups in the affine Weyl groups of types $\widetilde{C}_{n}$ and $\widetilde{B}_n$.
The present work stemmed from the study of the problem of harmonic analysis on the infinite-dimensional unitary group U(\infty). That problem consisted in the decomposition of a certain 4-parameter family of unitary representations, which replace the nonexisting two-sided regular representation (Olshanski, J. Funct. Anal., 2003, arXiv:0109193). The required decomposition is governed by certain probability measures on an infinite-dimensional space Ω, which is a dual object to U(\infty). A way to describe those measures is to convert them into determinantal point processes on the real line, it t…
