Let $I_n$ be the set of involutions in the symmetric group $S_n$, and for $A \subseteq \{0,1,\ldots,n\}$, let \[ F_n^A=\{σ\in I_n \mid \text{$σ$ has $a$ fixed points for some $a \in A$}\}. \] We give a complete characterisation of the sets $A$ for which $F_n^A$, with the order induced by the Bruhat order on $S_n$, is a graded poset. In particular, we prove that $F_n^{\{1\}}$ (i.e., the set of involutions with exactly one fixed point) is graded, which settles a conjecture of Hultman in the affirmative. When $F_n^A$ is graded, we give its rank function. We also give a short new proof of the EL-shellability of $F_n^{\{0\}}$ (i.e., the set of fixed point-free involutions), which was recently proved by Can, Cherniavsky, and Twelbeck.
Keywords: Bruhat order, symmetric group, involution, conjugacy class, graded poset, EL-shellability
We show that the principal order ideal below an element w in the Bruhat order on involutions in a symmetric group is a Boolean lattice if and only if w avoids the patterns 4321, 45312 and 456123. Similar criteria for signed permutations are also stated. Involutions with this property are enumerated with respect to natural statistics. In this context, a bijective correspondence with certain Motzkin paths is demonstrated.
In this note, we introduce a statistic on Motzkin paths that describes the rank generating function of Bruhat order for involutions. Our proof relies on a bijection introduced by Philippe Biane from permutations to certain labeled Motzkin paths and a recently introduced interpretation of this rank generating function in terms of visible inversions. By restricting our identity to fixed-point-free (FPF) involutions, we recover an identity due to Louis Billera, Lionel Levine and Karola Mészáros with a previous bijective proof by Matthew Watson. Our work sheds new light on the Ethiopian dinner gam…
The order complex of inclusion poset $PF_n$ of Borel orbit closures in skew-symmetric matrices is investigated. It is shown that $PF_n$ is an EL-shellable poset, and furthermore, its order complex triangulates a ball. The rank-generating function of $PF_n$ is computed and the resulting polynomial is contrasted with the Hasse-Weil zeta function of the variety of skew-symmetric matrices over finite fields.
We study the poset of Borel congruence classes of symmetric matrices ordered by containment of closures. We give a combinatorial description of this poset and calculate its rank function. We discuss the relation between this poset and the Bruhat poset of involutions of the symmetric group.
The main purpose of this paper is to prove that the Bruhat-Chevalley ordering of the symmetric group when restricted to the fixed-point-free involutions forms an $EL$-shellable poset whose order complex triangulates a ball. Another purpose of this article is to prove that the Deodhar-Srinivasan poset is a proper, graded subposet of the Bruhat-Chevalley poset on fixed-point-free involutions.
When $Sp(2n,\mathbb{C})$ acts on the flag variety of $SL(2n,\mathbb{C})$, the orbits are in bijection with fixed point free involutions in the symmetric group $S_{2n}$. In this case, the associated Kazhdan-Lusztig-Vogan polynomials $P_{v,u}$ can be indexed by pairs of fixed point free involutions $v\geq u$, where $\geq$ denotes the Bruhat order on $S_{2n}$. We prove that these polynomials are combinatorial invariants in the sense that if $f: [u, w_0 ] \rightarrow [u , w_0]$ is a poset isomorphism of upper intervals in the Bruhat order on fixed point free involutions, then $P_{v,u} = P_{f(v),u}…
Let $B$ be the group of invertible upper-triangular complex $n\times n$ matrices, $\mathfrak{u}$ the space of upper-triangular complex matrices with zeroes on the diagonal and $\mathfrak{u}^*$ its dual space. The group $B$ acts on $\mathfrak{u}^*$ by $(g.f)(x)=f(gxg^{-1})$, $g\in B$, $f\in\mathfrak{u}^*$, $x\in\mathfrak{u}$. To each involution $σ$ in $S_n$, the symmetric group on $n$ letters, one can assign the $B$-orbit $Ω_σ\in\mathfrak{u}^*$. We present a combinatorial description of the partial order on the set of involutions induced by the orbit closures. The answer is given in terms of ro…
Applying a classical theorem of Smith, we show that the poset property of being Gorenstein$^*$ over $\mathbb{Z}_2$ is inherited by the subposet of fixed points under an involutive poset automorphism. As an application, we prove that every interval in the Bruhat order on (twisted) involutions in an arbitrary Coxeter group has this property, and we find the rank function. This implies results conjectured by F. Incitti. We also show that the Bruhat order on the fixed points of an involutive automorphism induced by a Coxeter graph automorphism is isomorphic to the Bruhat order on the fixed subgrou…
In this manuscript we study inclusion posets of Borel orbit closures on (symmetric) matrices. In particular, we show that the Bruhat poset of partial involutions is a lexicographiically shellable poset. Also, studying the embeddings of symmetric groups and involutions into rooks and partial involutions, respectively, we find new $EL$-labelings on permutations as well as on involutions.
The open intervals in the Bruhat order on twisted involutions in a Coxeter group are shown to be PL spheres. This implies results conjectured by F. Incitti and sharpens the known fact that these posets are Gorenstein* over Z_2. We also introduce a Boolean cell complex which is an analogue for twisted involutions of the Coxeter complex. Several classical Coxeter complex properties are shared by our complex. When the group is finite, it is a shellable sphere, shelling orders being given by the linear extensions of the weak order on twisted involutions. Furthermore, the h-polynomial of the comple…
We examine Borel subgroup orbits in the classical symmetric space of type CI, which are parametrized by skew symmetric (n, n)-clans. We describe bijections between such clans, certain weighted lattice paths, and pattern-avoiding signed involutions, and we give a cell decomposition of the symmetric space in terms of collections of clans called sects. The largest sect with a conjectural closure order is isomorphic (as a poset) to the Bruhat order on partial involutions.
A zircon is a poset in which every principal order ideal is finite and equipped with a so-called special matching. We prove that the subposet induced by the fixed points of any automorphism of a zircon is itself a zircon. This provides a natural context in which to view recent results on Bruhat orders on twisted involutions in Coxeter groups.
We study a family of symmetric functions $\hat F_z$ indexed by involutions $z$ in the affine symmetric group. These power series are analogues of Lam's affine Stanley symmetric functions and generalizations of the involution Stanley symmetric functions introduced by Hamaker, Pawlowski, and the first author. Our main result is to prove a transition formula for $\hat F_z$ which can be used to define an affine involution analogue of the Lascoux-Schützenberger tree. Our proof of this formula relies on Lam and Shimozono's transition formula for affine Stanley symmetric functions and some new techni…
Involution words are variations of reduced words for twisted involutions in Coxeter groups. They arise naturally in the study of the Bruhat order, of certain Iwahori-Hecke algebra modules, and of orbit closures in flag varieties. Specifically, to any twisted involutions $x$, $y$ in a Coxeter group $W$ with automorphism $*$, we associate a set of involution words $\hat{\mathcal{R}}_*(x,y)$. This set is the disjoint union of the reduced words of a set of group elements $\mathcal{A}_*(x,y)$, which we call the atoms of $y$ relative to $x$. The atoms, in turn, are contained in a larger set $\mathca…
We study coadjoint $B$-orbits on $\mathfrak{n}^*$, where $B$ is a Borel subgroup of a complex orthogonal group $G$, and $\mathfrak{n}$ is the Lie algebra of the unipotent radical of $B$. To each basis involution $w$ in the Weyl group $W$ of $G$ one can assign the associated $B$-orbit $Ω_w$. We prove that, given basis involutions $σ$, $τ$ in $W$, if the orbit $Ω_σ$ is contained in the closure of the orbit $Ω_τ$ then $σ$ is less than or equal to $τ$ with respect to the Bruhat order on $W$. For a basis involution $w$, we also compute the dimension of $Ω_w$ and present a conjectural description of…
We introduce and study affine analogues of the fixed-point-free (FPF) involution Stanley symmetric functions of Hamaker, Marberg, and Pawlowski. Our methods use the theory of quasiparabolic sets introduced by Rains and Vazirani, and we prove that the subset of FPF-involutions is a quasiparabolic set for the affine symmetric group under conjugation. Using properties of quasiparabolic sets, we prove a transition formula for the affine FPF involution Stanley symmetric functions, analogous to Lascoux and Schützenberger's transition formula for Schubert polynomials. Our results suggest several conj…
We derive the cluster structure on the conjugation quotient Coxeter double Bruhat cells of a simple Lie group from that on the double Bruhat cells of the corresponding adjoint Lie group given by Fock and Goncharov using the notion of amalgamation given by Fock and Goncharov, and Williams, thereby generalizing the construction developed by Gekhtman \emph{et al}. We will then use this cluster structure on the conjugation quotient Coxeter double Bruhat cells to construct generalized Bäcklund-Darboux transformations between two Coxeter-Toda systems on simple Lie groups in terms of cluster mutation…
We elaborate upon a bijection discovered by Cools, Draisma, Payne, and Robeva between the set of rectangular standard Young tableaux and the set of equivalence classes of chip configurations on certain metric graphs under the relation of linear equivalence. We present an explicit formula for computing the $v_0$-reduced divisors (representatives of the equivalence classes) associated to given tableaux, and use this formula to prove (i) evacuation of tableaux corresponds (under the bijection) to reflecting the metric graph, and (ii) conjugation of the tableaux corresponds to taking the Riemann-R…
There are left and right actions of the 0-Hecke monoid of the affine symmetric group $\tilde{S}_n$ on involutions whose cycles are labeled periodically by nonnegative integers. Using these actions we construct two bijections, which are length-preserving in an appropriate sense, from the set of involutions in $\tilde{S}_n$ to the set of $\mathbb{N}$-weighted matchings in the $n$-element cycle graph. As an application, we compute a formula for the bivariate generating function counting the involutions in $\tilde S_n$ by length and absolute length. The 0-Hecke monoid of $\tilde{S}_n$ also acts on…
Let $G$ be a connected reductive linear algebraic group over $\C$ with an involution $θ$. Denote by $K$ the subgroup of fixed points. In certain cases, the $K$-orbits in the flag variety $G/B$ are indexed by the twisted identities $\iot = \{θ(w^{-1})w\mid w\in W\}$ in the Weyl group $W$. Under this assumption, we establish a criterion for rational smoothness of orbit closures which generalises classical results of Carrell and Peterson for Schubert varieties. That is, whether an orbit closure is rationally smooth at a given point can be determined by examining the degrees in a ``Bruhat graph'' …
P. Broussous and S. Stevens studied maps between enlarged Bruhat-Tits buildings to construct types for p-adic unitary groups. They needed maps which respect the Moy-Prasad filtrations. That property is called (CLF), i.e. compatibility with the Lie algebra filtrations. In the first part of this thesis we generalise their results on such maps to the Quaternion-algebra case. Let k0 be a p-adic field of residue characteristic not two. We consider a semisimple k0-rational Lie algebra element beta of a unitary group G:=U(h) defined over k0 with a signed hermitian form h. Let H be the centraliser of …
We consider elements of finite order in the Riordan group $\cal R$ over a field of characteristic $0$. Viewing $\cal R$ as a semi-direct product of groups of formal power series, we solve, for all $n \geq 2$, two foundational questions posed by L. Shapiro for the case $n = 2$ (`involutions'): Given a formal power series $F(x)$ of finite compositional order and an integer $n\geq 2$, Theorem 1 states, exactly which $g(x)$ make $\big(g(x), F(x)\big)$ a Riordan element of order $n$. Theorem 2 classifies finite-order Riordan group elements up to conjugation in $\cal R$. Viewing $\cal R$ as a group …
For a positive integer $n$, a collection $S$ of subsets of $[n]=\{1,\ldots,n\}$ is called symmetric if $X\in S$ implies $X^\ast\in S$, where $X^\ast:=\{i\in [n]\colon n-i+1\notin X\}$ (the involution $\ast$ was introduced by Karpman). Leclerc and Zelevinsky showed that the set of maximal strongly (resp. weakly) separated collections in $2^{[n]}$ is connected via flips, or mutations, ``in the presence of six (resp. four) witnesses''. We give a symmetric analog of those results, by showing that each maximal symmetric strongly (weakly) separated collection in $2^{[n]}$ can be obtained from any ot…
