The theory of flag algebras, introduced by Razborov in 2007, has opened the way to a systematic approach to the development of computer-assisted proofs in extremal combinatorics. It makes it possible to derive bounds for parameters in extremal combinatorics with the help of a computer, in a semi-automated manner. This article describes the main points of the theory in a complete way, using Mantel's theorem as a guiding example.
These are some brief notes on the translation from Razborov's recently-developed notion of flag algebra into the lexicon of functions and measures on certain abstract Cantor spaces (totally disconnected compact metric spaces).
Turán problems in extremal combinatorics ask to find asymptotic bounds on the edge densities of graphs and hypergraphs that avoid specified subgraphs. The theory of flag algebras proposed by Razborov provides powerful methods based on semidefinite programming to find sums of squares that establish edge density inequalities in Turán problems. Working with polynomial analogs of the flag algebra entities, we prove that such sums of squares created by flag algebras can be retrieved from a restricted version of the symmetry-adapted semidefinite program proposed by Gatermann and Parrilo. This involv…
The $n^{th}$ partial flag incidence algebra of a poset $P$ is the set of functions from $P^n$ to some ring which are zero on non-partial flag vectors. These partial flag incidence algebras for $n>2$ are not commutative, not unitary, and not associative. However, partial flag incidence algebras contain generalized zeta, delta, and Möbius functions which are finer and more delicate invariants than their classical analogues. We also study some generalized characteristic polynomials of posets which are not evaluations of Tutte polynomials and compute them for Boolean lattices. Motivation for this …
We prove that the group algebra of the hyperoctahedral group contains a subalgebra corresponding to the flag descent number of Adin, Brenti, and Roichman. This algebra is in fact the span of the basis elements of the type A and type B Eulerian descent algebras. We describe a set of orthogonal idempotents which spans the flag descent algebra and prove that it contains the type A Eulerian descent algebra as a two-sided ideal. Using a new colored analogue of Stanley's $P$-partitions, we prove the existence of a colored Eulerian descent algebra which is a subalgebra of the Mantaci-Reutenauer algeb…
We discuss a relationship between Chern-Schwartz-MacPherson classes for Schubert cells in flag manifolds, Fomin-Kirillov algebra, and the generalized nil-Hecke algebra. We show that nonnegativity conjecture in 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 the Bott-Samelson varieties. W…
We propose a new approach to the multiplication of Schubert classes in the K-theory of the flag variety. This extends the work of Fomin and Kirillov in the cohomology case, and is based on the quadratic algebra defined by them. More precisely, we define K-theoretic versions of the Dunkl elements considered by Fomin and Kirillov, show that they commute, and use them to describe the structure constants of the K-theory of the flag variety with respect to its basis of Schubert classes.
In this paper, we introduce an algebra $\mathcal{H}$ from a subspace lattice with respect to a fixed flag which contains its incidence algebra as a proper subalgebra. We then establish a relation between the algebra $\mathcal{H}$ and the quantum affine algebra $U_{q^{1/2}}(\widehat{\mathfrak{sl}}_2)$, where $q$ denotes the cardinality of the base field. It is an extension of the well-known relation between the incidence algebra of a subspace lattice and the quantum algebra $U_{q^{1/2}}(\mathfrak{sl}_2)$. We show that there exists an algebra homomorphism from $U_{q^{1/2}}(\widehat{\mathfrak{sl}…
Matroids are ubiquitous in modern combinatorics. As discovered by Gelfand, Goresky, MacPherson and Serganova there is a beautiful connection between matroid theory and the geometry of Grassmannians: realizable matroids correspond to torus orbits in Grassmannians. Further, as observed by Fink and Speyer general matroids correspond to classes in the $K$-theory of Grassmannians. This yields in particular a geometric description of the Tutte polynomial. In this review we describe all these constructions in detail, and moreover we generalise some of them to polymatroids. More precisely, we study th…
For any flag simplicial complex $K$, we describe the multigraded Poincare series, the minimal number of relations and the degrees of these relations in the Pontryagin algebra of the corresponding moment-angle complex $Z_K$. We compute the LS-category of $Z_K$ for flag complexes and give a lower bound in the general case. The key observation is that the Milnor-Moore spectral sequence collapses at the second sheet for flag $K$. We also show that the results of Panov and Ray about the Pontryagin algebras of Davis-Januszkiewicz spaces are valid for arbitrary coefficient rings, and introduce the $(…
Let $G$ be an $n$-vertex oriented graph. Let $t(G)$ (respectively $i(G)$) be the probability that a random set of $3$ vertices of $G$ spans a transitive triangle (respectively an independent set). We prove that $t(G) + i(G) \geq \frac{1}{9}-o_n(1)$. Our proof uses the method of flag algebras that we supplement with several steps that make it more easily comprehensible. We also prove a stability result and an exact result. Namely, we describe an extremal construction, prove that it is essentially unique, and prove that if $H$ is sufficiently far from that construction, then $t(H) + i(H)$ is sig…
For any Lie algebra of classical type or type $G_2$ we define a $K$-theoretic analog of Dunkl's elements, the so-called truncated {\it Ruijsenaars-Schneider-Macdonald elements}, $RSM$-elements for short, in the corresponding {\it Yang-Baxter group}, which form a commuting family of elements in the latter. For the root systems of type $A$ we prove that the subalgebra of the {\it bracket algebra} generated by the RSM-elements is isomorphic to the Grothendieck ring of the flag variety. In general, we prove that the subalgebra generated by the {\it images} of the RSM-elements in the corresponding …
The 0-Hecke algebra $H_n(0)$ is a deformation of the group algebra of the symmetric group $\SS_n$. We show that its coinvariant algebra naturally carries the regular representation of $H_n(0)$, giving an analogue of the well-known result for $\SS_n$ by Chevalley-Shephard-Todd. By investigating the action of $H_n(0)$ on coinvariants and flag varieties, we interpret the generating functions counting the permutations with fixed inverse descent set by their inversion number and major index. We also study the action of $H_n(0)$ on the cohomology rings of the Springer fibers, and similarly interpret…
We study walk algebras and Hecke algebras for Kac-Moody root systems. Each choice of orientation for the set of real roots gives rise to a corresponding "oriented" basis for each of these algebras. We show that the notion of distinguished subexpression naturally arises when studying the transition matrix between oriented bases. We then relate these notions to the geometry of Kac-Moody flag varieties and Bott-Samelson varieties. In particular, we show that the number of points over a finite field in certain intersections of these varieties is given by change of basis coefficients between orient…
In this paper, we prove several new Turán density results for 3-graphs with independent neighbourhoods. We show: π(K_4^-, C_5, F_{3,2})=12/49, π(K_4^-, F_{3,2})=5/18, and π(J_4, F_{3,2})=π(J_5, F_{3,2})=3/8, where J_t is the 3-graph consisting of a single vertex x together with a disjoint set A of size t and all $\binom{|A|}{2}$ 3-edges containing x. We also prove two Turán density results where we forbid certain induced subgraphs: π(F_{3,2}, induced K_4^-)=3/8 and π(K_5, 5-set spanning 8 edges)=3/4. The latter result is an analogue for K_5 of Razborov's result that π(K_4, 4-set spanning 1 edg…
We prove that each semi-invariant ring of the complete triple flag of length $n$ is an upper cluster algebra associated to an ice hive quiver. We find a rational polyhedral cone ${\sf G}_n$ such that the generic cluster character maps its lattice points onto a basis of the cluster algebra. As an application, we use the cluster algebra structure to find a special minimal set of generators for these semi-invariant rings when $n$ is small.
The main goal of this paper is to show that the (multi-homogeneous) coordinate ring of a partial flag variety $\mathbb{C} [G / P_K^{-}]$ admits a cluster algebra structure if $G$ is any simply-connected semisimple complex algebraic group. We use derivation properties and a special lifting map to prove that the cluster algebra structure $\mathcal{A}$ of the coordinate ring $\mathbb{C}[N_K]$ of a Schubert cell constructed by Goodearl and Yakimov can be lifted, in an explicit way, to a cluster structure $\hat{\mathcal{A}}$ living in the coordinate ring of the corresponding partial flag variety. T…
We study the structure of the stable coefficients of the Jones polynomial of an alternating link. We start by identifying the first four stable coefficients with polynomial invariants of a (reduced) Tait graph of the link projection. This leads us to introduce a free polynomial algebra of invariants of graphs whose elements give invariants of alternating links which strictly refine the first four stable coefficients. We conjecture that all stable coefficients are elements of this algebra, and give experimental evidence for the fifth and sixth stable coefficient. We illustrate our results in ta…
Given a hereditary family $\mathcal{G}$ of admissible graphs and a function $λ(G)$ that linearly depends on the statistics of order-$κ$ subgraphs in a graph $G$, we consider the extremal problem of determining $λ(n,\mathcal{G})$, the maximum of $λ(G)$ over all admissible graphs $G$ of order $n$. We call the problem perfectly $B$-stable for a graph $B$ if there is a constant $C$ such that every admissible graph $G$ of order $n\ge C$ can be made into a blow-up of $B$ by changing at most $C(λ(n,\mathcal{G})-λ(G)){n\choose2}$ adjacencies. As special cases, this property describes all almost extrem…
It is proved that the Boolean algebra of rank n minimizes the flag f-vector among all graded lattices of rank n, whose proper part has nontrivial top-dimensional homology. The analogous statement for the flag h-vector is conjectured in the Cohen-Macaulay case.
Fomin and Kirillov initiated a line of research into the realization of the cohomology and $K$-theory of generalized flag varieties $G/B$ as commutative subalgebras of certain noncommutative algebras. This approach has several advantages, which we discuss. This paper contains the most comprehensive result in a series of papers related to the mentioned line of research. More precisely, we give a model for the $T$-equivariant $K$-theory of a generalized flag variety $K_T(G/B)$ in terms of a certain braided Hopf algebra called the Nichols-Woronowicz algebra. Our model is based on the Chevalley-ty…
The Littelmann path moel gives a realization of the crystals of integrable representations of symmetrizable Kac-Moody Lie algebras. Recent work of Gaussent-Littelmann and others has demonstrated a connection between this model and the geometry of the loop Grassmannian. The alcove walk model is a version of the path model which is intimately connected to the combinatorics of the affine Hecke algebra. In this paper we define a refined alcove walk model which encodes the points of the affine flag variety. We show that this combinatorial indexing naturally indexes the "cells" in generalized Mirkov…
In this paper we give a direct proof of the positivity conjecture for adapted quantum cluster variables. Moreover, our process allows one to explicitly compute formulas for all adapted cluster monomials and certain ordered products of adapted cluster monomials. In particular, we describe all cluster monomials in cluster algebras and quantum cluster algebras of rank 2. One may obtain similar formulas for all finite type cluster monomials. The above results are achieved by computing explicit set-theoretic decompositions of Grassmannians of subrepresentations in adapted valued quiver representati…
We construct the affine version of the Fomin-Kirillov algebra, called the affine FK algebra, to investigate the combinatorics of affine Schubert calculus for type $A$. We introduce Murnaghan-Nakayama elements and Dunkl elements in the affine FK algebra. We show that they are commutative as Bruhat operators, and the commutative algebra generated by these operators is isomorphic to the cohomology of the affine flag variety. We show that the cohomology of the affine flag variety is product of the cohomology of an affine Grassmannian and a flag variety, which are generated by MN elements and Dunkl…
We will study monomial ideals $I$ in the exterior algebra as well as in the polynomial ring whose generic initial ideal is constant for all term orders up to permutations of variables. First, in the exterior algebra, we determine all graphs and all flag complexes whose exterior face ideal satisfies the above condition. Second, in the polynomial ring, it will be shown that the generic initial ideal $\gin_σ(I(G))$ of the edge ideal $I(G)$ of a graph $G$ is constant for all term orders $σ$ up to permutations of variables if and only if $G$ is a complete bipartite graph.
We give a natural filtration F on quantum cohomology QH(G/B) of G/B, which respects the quantum product structure. Its associated graded algebra is isomorphic to the tensor product of QH(G/P) and a corresponding graded algebra of QH(P/B) after localization. When the quantum parameter goes to zero, this specializes to the filtration on the classical cohomology H(G/B) from the Leray spectral sequence associated to the fibration P/B --> G/B --> G/P.
