This paper aims to focus on Richardson varieties on symplectic groups, especially their combinatorial characterization and defining equations. Schubert varieties and opposite Schubert varieties have profound significance in the study of generalized flag varieties which are not only research objects in algebraic geometry but also ones in representation theory. A more general research object is Richardson variety, which is obtained by the intersection of a Schubert variety and an opposite Schubert variety. The structure of Richardson variety on Grassmannian and its combinatorial characterization are well known, and there are also similar method on quotients of symplectic groups. In the first part of this paper, we calculate the orbit of the symplectic group action, and then rigorously give a method to describe the corresponding quotient by using the nesting subspace sequence of the linear space, i.e. flags. At the same time, the flag is used to describe the Schubert variety and Richardson variety on quotient of symplectic group. The flag varieties of Sp_{2n}(k)/P_d can be viewed as closed subvarieties of Grassmannian. Using the standard monomial theory, we obtain the generators of its ideal, i.e. its defining equations, in homogeneous coordinate ring of Grassmannian. Furthermore, we prove several properties of the type C standard monomial on the symplectic group flag variety. Defining equations of Richardson varieties on Sp_{2n}(k)/P_d are given as well.
A Richardson variety in a flag variety is an intersection of two Schubert varieties defined by transverse flags. We define and study relative Richardson varieties, which are defined over a base scheme with a vector bundle and two flags. To do so, we generalize transversality of flags to a relative notion, versality, that allows the flags to be non-transverse over some fibers. Relative Richardson varieties share many of the geometric properties of Richardson varieties. We generalize several geometric and cohomological facts about Richardson varieties to relative Richardson varieties. We also pr…
We compute the fundamental group of an open Richardson variety in the manifold of complete flags that corresponds to a partial flag manifold. Rietsch showed that these log Calabi-Yau varieties underlie a Landau-Ginzburg mirror for the Langlands dual partial flag manifold, and our computation verifies a prediction of Hori for this mirror. It is log Calabi-Yau as it isomorphic to the complement of the Knutson-Lam-Speyer anti-canonical divisor for the partial flag manifold. We also determine explicit defining equations for this divisor.
We study toric degenerations of opposite Schubert and Richardson varieties inside degenerations of Grassmannians and flag varieties. These degenerations are parametrized by matching fields in the sense of Sturmfels and Zelevinsky. We construct so-called restricted matching field ideals whose generating sets are understood combinatorially through tableaux. We determine when these ideals are toric and coincide with Gröbner degenerations of Richardson varieties using the well established standard monomial theory for Grassmannians and flag varieties.
We study standard monomial bases for Richardson varieties inside the flag variety. In general, writing down a standard monomial basis for a Richardson variety can be challenging, as it involves computing so-called defining chains or key tableaux. However, for a certain family of Richardson varieties, indexed by compatible permutations, we provide a very direct and straightforward combinatorial rule for writing down a standard monomial basis. We apply this result to the study of toric degenerations of Richardson varieties. In particular, we provide a new family of toric degenerations of Richard…
We consider a desingularization Gamma of a Richardson variety X_w^v=X_w \cap X^v in the flag variety Fl(n)=GL(n)/B, obtained as a fibre of a projection from a certain Bott-Samelson variety Z. We then construct a basis of the homogeneous coordinate ring of Gamma inside Z, indexed by combinatorial objects which we call w_0-standard tableaux.
We prove that, defined with respect to versal flags, the product of two relative Bott-Samelson varieties over the flag bundle is a resolution of singularities of a relative Richardson variety. This result generalizes Brion's resolution of singularities of Richardson varieties to the relative setting. It reflects the phenomenon that the local geometry of a relative Richardson variety is completely governed by the two intersecting relative Schubert varieties, studied by Chan-Pflueger. We also prove an analogous theorem in the case of relative Grassmannian Richardson varieties, thereby furnishing…
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 show that in a cominuscule partial flag variety G/P, the multiplicity of an arbitrary point on a Richardson variety X_w^v = X_w \cap X^v is the product of its multiplicities on the Schubert varieties X_w and X^v.
The totally nonnegative flag variety was introduced by Lusztig. It has enriched combinatorial, geometric, and Lie-theoretic structures. In this paper, we introduce a (new) $J$-total positivity on the full flag variety of an arbitrary Kac-Moody group, generalizing the (ordinary) total positivity. We show that the $J$-totally nonnegative flag variety has a cellular decomposition into totally positive $J$-Richardson varieties. Moreover, each totally positive $J$-Richardson variety admits a favorable decomposition, called a product structure. Combined with the generalized Poincare conjecture, we p…
A stratified variety has a Kazhdan-Lusztig atlas if it can be locally modelled with Kazhdan-Lusztig varieties stratified by Schubert varieties in some Kac-Moody flag manifold via stratified isomorphisms. In this paper, we show that the partial flag manifold $G/P$ with the projected Richardson stratification has a Kazhdan-Lusztig atlas, with each chart stratified-isomorphic to a Kazhdan-Lusztig variety in the affine flag manifold of the formal loop group $\widehat{G}$ of $G$. This result generalizes that of Snider's on $Gr(k,n)$ with the positroid stratification, and is a geometric counterpart …
Richardson varieties play an important role in intersection theory and in the geometric interpretation of the Littlewood-Richardson Rule for flag varieties. We discuss three natural generalizations of Richardson varieties which we call projection varieties, intersection varieties, and rank varieties. In many ways, these varieties are more fundamental than Richardson varieties and are more easily amenable to inductive geometric constructions. In this paper, we study the singularities of each type of generalization. Like Richardson varieties, projection varieties are normal with rational singula…
We describe an explicit geometric Littlewood-Richardson rule, interpreted as deforming the intersection of two Schubert varieties so that they break into Schubert varieties. There are no restrictions on the base field, and all multiplicities arising are 1; this is important for applications. This rule should be seen as a generalization of Pieri's rule to arbitrary Schubert classes, by way of explicit homotopies. It has a straightforward bijection to other Littlewood-Richardson rules, such as tableaux, and Knutson and Tao's puzzles. This gives the first geometric proof and interpretation of the…
A partial flag variety ${\mathcal {P}}_K$ of a Kac-Moody group $G$ has a natural stratification into projected Richardson varieties. When $G$ is a connected reductive group, a Bruhat atlas for ${\mathcal {P}}_K$ was constructed by He, Knutson and Lu: ${\mathcal {P}}_K$ is locally modeled with Schubert varieties in some Kac-Moody flag variety as stratified spaces. The existence of Bruaht atlases implies some nice combinatorial and geometric properties on the partial flag varieties and the decomposition into projected Richardson varieties. A Bruhat atlas does not exist for partial flag varieties…
We construct the twist automorphism of open Richardson varieties inside the flag variety of a complex semisimple algebraic group. We show that the twist map preserves totally positive parts, and prove a Chamber Ansatz formula for it. Our twist map generalizes the twist maps previously constructed by Berenstein-Fomin-Zelevinsky, Marsh-Scott, and Muller-Speyer. We use it to explain the relationship between the two conjectural cluster structures for Richardson varieties studied by Leclerc and by Ingermanson.
While the projections of Schubert varieties in a full generalized flag manifold G/B to a partial flag manifold $G/P$ are again Schubert varieties, the projections of Richardson varieties (intersections of Schubert varieties with opposite Schubert varieties) are not always Richardson varieties. The stratification of G/P by projections of Richardson varieties arises in the theory of total positivity and also from Poisson and noncommutative geometry. In this paper we show that many of the geometric properties of Richardson varieties hold more generally for projected Richardson varieties; they are…
We describe the effect of Feigin's flat degeneration of the type $\textrm{A}$ flag variety on its Schubert varieties. In particular, we study when they stay irreducible and in several cases we are able to encode reducibility of the degenerations in terms of symmetric group combinatorics. As a side result, we obtain an identification of some Schubert varieties with Richardson varieties in higher rank partial flag varieties.
Let G be a semisimple algebraic group over an algebraically closed field of positive characteristic. In this note, we show that an irreducible closed subvariety of the flag variety of G is compatibly split by the unique canonical Frobenius splitting if and only if it is a Richardson variety, i.e. an intersection of a Schubert and an opposite Schubert variety.
The necessary and sufficient Horn inequalities which determine the non-vanishing Littlewood-Richardson coefficients in the cohomology of a Grassmannian are recursive in that they are naturally indexed by non-vanishing Littlewood-Richardson coefficients on smaller Grassmannians. We show how non-vanishing in the Schubert calculus for cominuscule flag varieties is similarly recursive. For these varieties, the non-vanishing of products of Schubert classes is controlled by the non-vanishing products on smaller cominuscule flag varieties. In particular, we show that the lists of Schubert classes who…
We compute the Hilbert series of general weighted flag varieties and discuss a computer-aided method to determine their defining equations. We apply our results to weighted flag varieties coming from the Lie groups of type G_2 and GL(6), to construct some families of polarised projective varieties in codimensions 8 and 6, respectively.
Let $u\in\mathrm{End}(\mathbb{C}^n)$ be nilpotent. The variety of $u$-stable complete flags is called the Springer fiber over $u$. Its irreducible components are parameterized by a set of standard Young tableaux. The Richardson (resp. Bala-Carter) components of Springer fibers correspond to the Richardson (resp. Bala-Carter) elements of the symmetric group, through Robinson-Schensted correspondence. Every Richardson component is isomorphic to a product of standard flag varieties. On the contrary, the Bala-Carter components are very susceptible to be singular. First, we characterize the singula…
We prove that any three-point genus zero Gromov-Witten invariant on a type A Grassmannian is equal to a classical intersection number on a two-step flag variety. We also give symplectic and orthogonal analogues of this result; in these cases the two-step flag variety is replaced by a sub-maximal isotropic Grassmannian. Our theorems are applied, in type A, to formulate a conjectural quantum Littlewood-Richardson rule, and in the other classical Lie types, to obtain new proofs of the main structure theorems for the quantum cohomology of Lagrangian and orthogonal Grassmannians.
Following some work of Aluffi-Mihalcea-Schürmann-Su for the CSM classes of Schubert cells and some elaborate computer calculations by R. Rimanyi and L. Mihalcea, I conjecture that the CSM classes of the Richardson cells expressed in the Schubert basis have nonnegative coefficients. This conjecture was principally motivated by a new product $\square$ coming from the Segre classes in the cohomology of flag varieties (such that the associated Gr of this product is the standard cup product) and the conjecture that the structure constants of this new product $\square$ in the standard Schubert basis…
We observe that the expansion in the basis of Schubert cycles for $H^*(G/B)$ of the class of a Richardson variety stable under a spherical Levi subgroup is described by a theorem of Brion. Using this observation, along with a combinatorial model of the poset of certain symmetric subgroup orbit closures, we give positive combinatorial descriptions of certain Schubert structure constants on the full flag variety in type $A$. Namely, we describe $c_{u,v}^w$ when $u$ and $v$ are inverse to Grassmannian permutations with unique descents at $p$ and $q$, respectively. We offer some conjectures for si…
We continue, generalize and expand our study of linear degenerations of flag varieties from [G. Cerulli Irelli, X. Fang, E. Feigin, G. Fourier, M. Reineke, Math. Z. 287 (2017), no. 1-2, 615-654]. We realize partial flag varieties as quiver Grassmannians for equi-oriented type A quivers and construct linear degenerations by varying the corresponding quiver representation. We prove that there exists the deepest flat degeneration and the deepest flat irreducible degeneration: the former is the partial analogue of the mf-degenerate flag variety and the latter coincides with the partial PBW-degener…
We introduce a mutation algorithm for puzzles that is a three-direction analogue of the classical jeu de taquin algorithm for semistandard tableaux. We apply this algorithm to prove our conjectured puzzle formula for the equivariant Schubert structure constants of two-step flag varieties. This formula gives an expression for the structure constants that is positive in the sense of Graham. Thanks to the equivariant version of the `quantum equals classical' result, our formula specializes to a Littlewood-Richardson rule for the equivariant quantum cohomology of Grassmannians.
We define a set of PBW-semistandard tableaux that is in a weight preserving bijection with the set of monomials corresponding to integral points in the Feigin-Fourier-Littelmann-Vinberg polytope for highest weight modules of the symplectic Lie algebra. We then show that these tableaux parametrize bases of the homogeneous coordinate rings of the complete symplectic original and PBW degenerate flag varieties. From this construction, we provide explicit degenerate relations that generate the defining ideal of the PBW degenerate variety. These relations consist of type A degenerate Plücker relatio…
While the intersection of the Grassmannian Bruhat decompositions for all coordinate flags is an intractable mess, the intersection of only the {\em cyclic shifts} of one Bruhat decomposition turns out to have many of the good properties of the Bruhat and Richardson decompositions. This decomposition coincides with the projection of the Richardson stratification of the flag manifold, studied by Lusztig, Rietsch, and Brown-Goodearl-Yakimov. However, its cyclic-invariance is hidden in this description. Postnikov gave many cyclic-invariant ways to index the strata, and we give a new one, by a subs…
We study a family of polynomials whose values express degrees of Schubert varieties in the generalized complex flag manifold G/B. The polynomials are given by weighted sums over saturated chains in the Bruhat order. We derive several explicit formulas for these polynomials, and investigate their relations with Schubert polynomials, harmonic polynomials, Demazure characters, and generalized Littlewood-Richardson coefficients. In the second half of the paper, we concern with the case of to the classical flag manifold of Lie type A and discuss related combinatorial objects: flagged Schur polynomi…
Let $X^v_w$ be a Richardson variety in the full flag variety $X$ associated to a symmetrizable Kac-Moody group $G$. Recall that $X^v_w$ is the intersection of the finite dimensional Schubert variety $X_w$ with the finite codimensional opposite Schubert variety $X^v$. We give an explicit $\bQ$-divisor $Δ$ on $X^v_w$ and prove that the pair $(X^v_w, Δ)$ has Kawamata log terminal singularities. In fact, $-K_{X^v_w} - Δ$ is ample, which additionally proves that $(X^v_w, Δ)$ is log Fano. We first give a proof of our result in the finite case (i.e., in the case when $G$ is a finite dimensional semis…
We give positive combinatorial descriptions of Schubert structure constants $c_{u,v}^w$ for the full flag variety in type $A_{n-1}$ when $u$ and $v$ form what we refer to as a "$(p,q)$-pair" ($p+q=n$). The key observation is that a certain subset of the $GL(p,\mathbb{C}) \times GL(q,\mathbb{C})$-orbit closures on the flag variety (those satisfying an easily stated pattern avoidance condition) are Richardson varieties. The result on structure constants follows when one combines this observation with a theorem of Brion concerning intersection numbers of spherical subgroup orbit closures and Schu…
Using an action of the Richardson-Springer monoid on involutions, we study the weak order on the variety of complete quadrics. Maximal chains in the poset are explicitly determined. Applying results of Brion, our calculations describe certain cohomology classes in the complete flag variety.
We consider Schubert problems with respect to flags osculating the rational normal curve. These problems are of special interest when the osculation points are all real -- in this case, for zero-dimensional Schubert problems, the solutions are "as real as possible". Recent work by Speyer has extended the theory to the moduli space $\overline{M_{0,r}}$, allowing the points to collide. These give rise to smooth covers of $\overline{M_{0,r}}(\mathbb{R})$, with structure and monodromy described by Young tableaux and jeu de taquin. In this paper, we give analogous results on one-dimensional Schuber…
The jeu-de-taquin-based Littlewood-Richardson rule of H. Thomas and A. Yong (2009) for minuscule varieties has been extended in two orthogonal directions, either enriching the cohomology theory or else expanding the family of varieties considered. In one direction, A. Buch and M. Samuel (2016) developed a combinatorial theory of "unique rectification targets" in minuscule posets to extend the Thomas-Yong rule from ordinary cohomology to $K$-theory. Separately, P.-E. Chaput and N. Perrin (2012) used the combinatorics of R. Proctor's "$d$-complete posets" to extend the Thomas-Yong rule from minu…
We illuminate the relation between the Bruhat order on the symmetric group and structure constants (Littlewood-Richardson coefficients) for the cohomology of the flag manifold in terms of its basis of Schubert classes. Equivalently, the structure constants for the ring of polynomials in variables $x_1,x_2,...$ in terms of its basis of Schubert polynomials. We use combinatorial, algebraic, and geometric methods, notably a study of intersections of Schubert varieties and maps between flag manifolds. We establish a number of new identities among these structure constants. This leads to formulas f…
We give positive descriptions for certain Schubert structure constants $c_{u,v}^w$ for the full flag variety in Lie types $C$ and $D$. This is accomplished by first observing that a number of the $K=GL(n,\C)$-orbit closures on these flag varieties coincide with Richardson varieties, and then applying a theorem of M. Brion on the decomposition of such an orbit closure in the Schubert basis in terms of paths in the weak order graph.
We explain that the Plücker relations provide the defining equations of the thick flag manifold associated to a Kac-Moody algebra. This naturally transplant the result of Kumar-Mathieu-Schwede about the Frobenius splitting of thin flag manifolds to the thick case. As a consequence, we provide a description of the global sections of line bundles of a thick Schubert variety as conjectured in Kashiwara-Shimozono [Duke Math. J. 148 (2009)]. This also yields the existence of a compatible basis of thick Demazure modules, and the projective normality of the thick Schubert varieties.
I prove that the full Fock-Goncharov conjecture holds for $\mathrm{Conf}_3^\times(\widetilde{\mathcal{F}\hspace{-1.6pt}\ell})$-- the configuration space of triples of decorated flags in generic position. As a key ingredient of this proof, I exhibit a maximal green sequence for the quiver of the initial seed. I compute the Landau-Ginzburg potential $W$ on $\mathrm{Conf}_3^\times(\widetilde{\mathcal{F}\hspace{-1.6pt}\ell})^\vee$ associated to the partial minimal model $\mathrm{Conf}_3^\times(\widetilde{\mathcal{F}\hspace{-1.6pt}\ell}) \subset \mathrm{Conf}_3(\widetilde{\mathcal{F}\hspace{-1.6pt}…
