A graph $Γ$ is $G$-symmetric if $G$ is a group of automorphisms of $Γ$ which is transitive on the set of ordered pairs of adjacent vertices of $Γ$. If $V(Γ)$ admits a nontrivial $G$-invariant partition ${\cal B}$ such that for blocks $B, C \in {\cal B}$ adjacent in the quotient graph $Γ_{\cal B}$ of $Γ$ relative to ${\cal B}$, exactly one vertex of $B$ has no neighbour in $C$, then $Γ$ is called an almost multicover of $Γ_{\cal B}$. In this case an incidence structure with point set ${\cal B}$ arises naturally, and it is a $(G, 2)$-point-transitive and $G$-block-transitive 2-design if in addition $Γ_{\cal B}$ is a complete graph. In this paper we classify all $G$-symmetric graphs $Γ$ such that (i) ${\cal B}$ has block size $|B| \ge 3$; (ii) $Γ_{\cal B}$ is complete and almost multi-covered by $Γ$; (iii) the incidence structure involved is a linear space; and (iv) $G$ contains a regular normal subgroup which is elementary abelian. This classification together with earlier results in [A. Gardiner and C. E. Praeger, Australas. J. Combin. 71 (2018) 403--426], [M.~Giulietti et al., J. Algebraic Combin. 38 (2013) 745--765] and [T. Fang et al., Electronic J. Combin. 23 (2) (2016) P2.27] completes the classification of symmetric graphs satisfying (i) and (ii).
We investigate the $α$-colored Eulerian polynomials and a notion of descents introduced in a recent paper of Hedmark and show that such polynomials can be computed as a polynomial encoding descents computed over a quotient of the wreath product $\mathbb{Z}_α\wr\mathfrak{S}_n$. Moreover, we consider the flag descent statistic computed over this same quotient and find that the flag Eulerian polynomial remains palindromic. We prove that the flag descent polynomial is palindromic over this same quotient by giving a combinatorial proof that the flag descent statistic is symmetrically distributed ov…
This paper provides a unified combinatorial framework to study orbits in certain affine flag varieties via the associated Bruhat-Tits buildings. We first formulate, for arbitrary affine buildings, the notion of a chimney retraction. This simultaneously generalizes the two well-known notions of retractions in affine buildings: retractions from chambers at infinity and retractions from alcoves. We then present a recursive formula for computing the images of certain minimal galleries in the building under chimney retractions, using purely combinatorial tools associated to the underlying affine We…
The pairs $(\mathcal{D},G)$, where $\mathcal{D}$ is a non-trivial $2$-$(k^{2},k,λ)$ design, with $λ\mid k$, and $G$ is a flag-transitive automorphism group of $\mathcal{D}$ of affine type such that $G \nleq A ΓL_{1}(k^{2})$, are classified.
We prove the affine Pieri rule for the cohomology of the affine flag variety conjectured by Lam, Lapointe, Morse and Shimozono. We study the cap operator on the affine nilHecke ring that is motivated by Kostant and Kumar's work on the equivariant cohomology of the affine flag variety. We show that the cap operators for Pieri elements are the same as Pieri operators defined by Berg, Saliola and Serrano. This establishes the affine Pieri rule.
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…
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 article, we study $2$-designs with prime replication number admitting a flag-transitive automorphism group. The automorphism groups of these designs are point-primitive of almost simple or affine type. We determine $2$-designs with prime replication number admitting an almost simple automorphism group.
Flag matroids are a rich family of Coxeter matroids that can be characterized using pairs of matroids that form a quotient. We consider a class of matroids called positroids, introduced by Postnikov, and utilize their combinatorial representations to explore characterizations of flag positroids. Given a uniform positroid, we give a purely combinatorial characterization of a family of positroids that form quotients with it. We state this in terms of their associated decorated permutations. In proving our characterization we also fully describe the circuits of this family.
We introduce abacus diagrams that describe minimal length coset representatives in affine Weyl groups of types B, C, and D. These abacus diagrams use a realization of the affine Weyl group of type C due to Eriksson to generalize a construction of James for the symmetric group. We also describe several combinatorial models for these parabolic quotients that generalize classical results in affine type A related to core partitions.
Given a flag in each of the vertex-transitive tessellations of the Euclidean plane by regular polygons, we determine the flag stabilizer under the action of the automorphism group of a regular cover. In so doing we give a presentation of these tilings as quotients of regular (infinite) polyhedra.
We show that every smooth Schubert variety of affine type $\tilde{A}$ is an iterated fibre bundle of Grassmannians, extending an analogous result by Ryan and Wolper for Schubert varieties of finite type $A$. As a consequence, we finish a conjecture of Billey-Crites that a Schubert variety in affine type $\tilde{A}$ is smooth if and only if the corresponding affine permutation avoids the patterns $4231$ and $3412$. Using this iterated fibre bundle structure, we compute the generating function for the number of smooth Schubert varieties of affine type $\tilde{A}$.
In this paper, we construct new families of flag-transitive linear spaces with $q^{2n}$ points and $q^{2}$ points on each line that admit a one-dimensional affine automorphism group. We achieve this by building a natural connection with permutation polynomials of $\mathbb{F}_{q^{2}}$ of a particular form and following the scheme of Pauley and Bamberg in [A construction of one-dimensional affine flag-transitive linear spaces, Finite Fields Appl. 14 (2008) 537-548].
We prove isoperimetric inequalities for quotients of $n$-dimensional Affine buildings. We use these inequalities to prove topological overlapping for the 2-dimensional skeletons of these buildings.
For any finite poset P we introduce a homogeneous space as a quotient of the general linear group with the incidence group of P. When P is a chain this quotient is a flag variety; for the trivial poset our construction gives a variety recently introduced in [20]. Moreover we provide decompositions for any set in a projective space, induced by the action of the incidence group of a suitable poset. In the classical cases of Grassmannians and flag varieties we recover, depending on the choice of the poset, the partition into Schubert cells and the matroid strata. Our general framework produces, f…
We use recent extensions of the Borsuk--Ulam theorem for Stiefel manifolds to generalize the ham sandwich theorem to mass assignments. A $k$-dimensional mass assignment continuously imposes a measure on each $k$-dimensional affine subspace of $\mathbb{R}^d$. Given a finite collection of mass assignments of different dimensions, one may ask if there is some sequence of affine subspaces $S_{k-1} \subset S_k \subset \ldots \subset S_{d-1} \subset \mathbb{R}^d$ such that $S_i$ bisects all the mass assignments on $S_{i+1}$ for every $i$. We show it is possible to do so whenever the number of mass a…
The goal of this paper is to clarify the connection between certain structures from the theory of totally nonnegative Grassmannians, quiver Grassmannians for cyclic quivers and the theory of local models of Shimura varieties. More precisely, we generalize the construction from our previous paper relating the combinatorics and geometry of quiver Grassmanians to that of the totally nonnegative Grassmannians. The varieties we are interested in serve as realizations of local models of Shimura varieties. We exploit quiver representation techniques to study the quiver Grassmannians of interest and, …
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}…
In this paper, we consider finite flag-transitive affine planes with a solvable automorphism group. Under a mild number-theoretic condition involving the order and dimension of the plane, the translation complement must contain a linear cyclic subgroup that either is transitive or has two equal-sized orbits on the line at infinity. We develop a new approach to the study of such planes by associating them with planar functions and permutation polynomials in the odd order and even order case respectively. In the odd order case, we characterize the Kantor-Suetake family by using Menichetti's clas…
Let $G$ be a complex quasi-simple algebraic group and $G/P$ be a partial flag variety. The projections of Richardson varieties from the full flag variety form a stratification of $G/P$. We show that the closure partial order of projected Richardson varieties agrees with that of a subset of Schubert varieties in the affine flag variety of $G$. Furthermore, we compare the torus-equivariant cohomology and $K$-theory classes of these two stratifications by pushing or pulling these classes to the affine Grassmannian. Our work generalizes results of Knutson, Lam, and Speyer for the Grassmannian of t…
We study subvarieties of the flag variety called Hessenberg varieties, defined by certain linear conditions. These subvarieties arise naturally in applications including geometric representation theory, number theory, and numerical analysis. We describe completely the homology of Hessenberg varieties over GL_n(C) and show that they have no odd-dimensional homology. We provide an explicit geometric construction which partitions each Hessenberg variety into pieces homeomorphic to affine space. We characterize these affine pieces by fillings of Young tableaux and show that the dimension of the af…
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 $Λ_0, \ldots, Λ_n$ 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 oper…
A flag matroid can be viewed as a chain of matroids linked by quotients. Flag matroids, of which relatively few interesting families have previously been known, are a particular class of Coxeter matroids. In this paper we give a family of flag matroids arising from an enumeration problem that is a generalization of the tennis ball problem. These flag matroids can also be defined in terms of lattice paths and they provide a generalization of the lattice path matroids of [Bonin et al., JCTA 104 (2003)].
Given a morphism from an affine semigroup Q to an arbitrary commutative monoid, it is shown that every fiber possesses an affine stratification: a partition into a finite disjoint union of translates of normal affine semigroups. The proof rests on mesoprimary decomposition of monoid congruences [arXiv:1107.4699] and a novel list of equivalent conditions characterizing the existence of an affine stratification. The motivating consequence of the main result is a special case of a conjecture due to Guo and the author [arXiv:0908.3473, arXiv:1105.5420] on the existence of affine stratifications fo…
Affine Weyl groups and their parabolic quotients are used extensively as indexing sets for objects in combinatorics, representation theory, algebraic geometry, and number theory. Moreover, in the classical Lie types we can conveniently realize the elements of these quotients via intuitive geometric and combinatorial models such as abaci, alcoves, coroot lattice points, core partitions, and bounded partitions. Berg, Jones, and Vazirani described a bijection between n-cores with first part equal to k and (n-1)-cores with first part less than or equal to k, and they interpret this bijection in te…
Let $\ell,k$ be fixed positive integers. In an earlier work, the first and third authors established a bijection between $\ell$-cores with first part equal to $k$ and $(\ell-1)$-cores with first part less than or equal to $k$. This paper gives several new interpretations of that bijection. The $\ell$-cores index minimal length coset representatives for $\widetilde{S_{\ell}} / S_{\ell}$ where $\widetilde{S_{\ell}}$ denotes the affine symmetric group and $S_{\ell}$ denotes the finite symmetric group. In this setting, the bijection has a beautiful geometric interpretation in terms of the root lat…
The Hecke group algebra $HW_0$ of a finite Coxeter group $W_0$, as introduced by the first and last author, is obtained from $W_0$ by gluing appropriately its 0-Hecke algebra and its group algebra. In this paper, we give an equivalent alternative construction in the case when $W_0$ is the classical Weyl group associated to an affine Weyl group $W$. Namely, we prove that, for $q$ not a root of unity, $HW_0$ is the natural quotient of the affine Hecke algebra through its level 0 representation. We further show that the level 0 representation is a calibrated principal series representation for a …
An $(n+1)$-toroid is a quotient of a tessellation of the $n$-dimensional Euclidean space with a lattice group. Toroids are generalizations of maps in the torus on higher dimensions and also provide examples of abstract polytopes. Equivelar toroids are those that are induced by regular tessellations. In this paper we present a classification of equivelar $(n+1)$-toroids with at most $n$ flag-orbits; in particular, we discuss a classification of $2$-orbit toroids of arbitrary dimension.
We generalize the work of Fomin, Greene, Reiner, and Shimozono on balanced labellings in two directions: (1) we define the diagrams of affine permutations and the balanced labellings on them; (2) we define the set-valued version of the balanced labellings. We show that the column-strict balanced labellings on the diagram of an affine permutation yield the affine Stanley symmetric function defined by Lam, and that the column-strict set-valued balanced labellings yield the affine stable Grothendieck polynomial of Lam. Moreover, once we impose suitable flag conditions, the flagged column-strict s…
The Peterson comparison formula proved by Woodward relates the three-pointed Gromov-Witten invariants for the quantum cohomology of partial flag varieties to those for the complete flag. Another such comparison can be obtained by composing a combinatorial version of the Peterson isomorphism with a result of Lapointe and Morse relating quantum Littlewood-Richardson coefficients for the Grassmannian to k-Schur analogs in the homology of the affine Grassmannian obtained by adding rim hooks. We show that these comparisons on quantum cohomology are equivalent, up to Postnikov's strange duality isom…
We discuss a surprising relationship between the partially ordered set of Newton points associated to an affine Schubert cell and the quantum cohomology of the complex flag variety. The main theorem provides a combinatorial formula for the unique maximum element in this poset in terms of paths in the quantum Bruhat graph, whose vertices are indexed by elements in the finite Weyl group. Key to establishing this connection is the fact that paths in the quantum Bruhat graph encode saturated chains in the strong Bruhat order on the affine Weyl group. This correspondence is also fundamental in the …
We study products of the affine geometric crystal of type A corresponding to symmetric powers of the standard representation. The quotient of this product by the R-matrix action is constructed inside the unipotent loop group. This quotient crystal has a semi-infinite limit, where the crystal structure is described in terms of limit ratios previously appearing in the study of total positivity of loop groups.
