Let G be a semi-simple algebraic group over the complex numbers, B a Borel subgroup of G, T a maximal torus in B and P a parabolic in G containing B. This paper deals with singularities of T-stable subvarieties of G/P. It turns out that under the restriction that G doesn't contain any G_2-factors, the key geometric invariant determining the singular T-fixed points of X is the linear span of the reduced tangent cone to X at a T-fixed point x provided the singularity is isolated. The goal of this paper is to describe this invariant at the maximal singular T-fixed points when X is a Schubert variety in G/P and G doesn't contain any G_2-factors. We first describe the span of the tangent cone solely in terms of Peterson translates, which were the main tool in a previous paper. Then, taking a further look at the Peterson translates (with the G_2-restriction), we are able to describe the span of the tangent cone at x in terms of its isotropy submodule and the Bruhat graph of X at x. This refinement gives a purely root theoretic description, which should be useful for computations. It also leads to an algorithm for the singular locus of X.
The quantum Bruhat graph, which is an extension of the graph formed by covering relations in the Bruhat order, is naturally related to the quantum cohomology ring of G/B. We enhance a result of Fulton and Woodward by showing that the minimal monomial in the quantum parameters that occurs in the quantum product of two Schubert classes has a simple interpretation in terms of directed paths in this graph. We define path Schubert polynomials, which are quantum cohomology analogues of skew Schubert polynomials recently introduced by Lenart and Sottile. They are given by sums over paths in the quant…
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…
For the toric variety X associated to the Bruhat poset of Schubert varieties in a minuscule G/P, we describe the singular locus in terms of the faces of the associated polyhedral cone. We further show that the singular locus is pure of codimension 3 in X.
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…
Following Contou-Carrere [CC], we consider the Bott-Samelson resolution of a Schubert variety as a variety of galleries in the Tits building associated to the situation. We prove that the rational smoothness of a Schubert variety can be expressed in terms of a subspace of the Zariski tangent space called, the combinatorial tangent space. For this, we use a characterization of rational smoothness of a Schubert variety introduced by Carrell and Peterson [CP].
We consider tangent cones to Schubert subvarieties of the flag variety $G/B$, where $B$ is a Borel subgroup of a reductive complex algebraic group $G$ of type $E_6$, $E_7$ or $E_8$. We prove that if $w_1$ and $w_2$ form a good pair of involutions in the Weyl group $W$ of $G$ then the tangent cones $C_{w_1}$ and $C_{w_2}$ to the corresponding Schubert subvarieties of $G/B$ do not coincide as subschemes of the tangent space to $G/B$ at the neutral point.
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…
A natural construction due to K. Ding yields Schubert varieties from Ferrers boards. The poset structure of the Schubert cells in these varieties is equal to the poset of maximal rook placements on the Ferrers board under the Bruhat order. We determine when two Ferrers boards have isomorphic rook posets. Equivalently, we give an exact categorization of when two Ding Schubert varieties have identical Schubert cell structures. This also produces a complete classification of isomorphism types of lower intervals of 312-avoiding permutations in the Bruhat order.
We use geometry to prove a number of new identities among the Littlewood-Richardson coefficients for Schubert polynomials (Schubert classes in a flag manifold). For many of these identities, there is a companion result about the Bruhat order which should imply the identity, were it known how to express these coefficients in terms of the Bruhat order. This analysis leads the determination of many of these constants. We conclude with an outline of geometric proofs for these identities.
Let $G$ be a complex reductive group, $T$ be a maximal torus of $G$, $B$ be a Borel subgroup of $G$ containing $T$, $W$ be the Weyl group of $G$ with respect to $T$. To each element $w$ of $W$ one can associate the Schubert subvariety $X_w$ of the flag variety $G/B$, the tangent cone to $X_w$ at the identity point $p$ considered as a subcheme of the tangent space $T_p(G/B)$, and the reduced tangent cone to $X_w$ at $p$ considered as a subvariety of $T_p(G/B)$. Let $w_1$, $w_2$ be distinct involutions in $W$. We prove that if $G$ is of type $B_n$ or $C_n$, then the tangent cones corresponding t…
Let $\mbox{IG}(k,2n+1)$ be the odd symplectic Grassmannian. It is a quasi-ho\-mo\-ge\-neous space with homogeneous-like behavior. A very limited description of curve neighborhoods of Schubert varieties in $\mbox{IG}(k,2n+1)$ was used by Mihalcea and the second named author to prove an (equivariant) quantum Chevalley rule. In this paper we give a full description of the irreducible components of curve neighborhoods in terms of the Hecke product of (appropriate) Weyl group elements, $k$-strict partitions, and BC-partitions. The latter set of partitions respect the Bruhat order with inclusions. O…
Let G be a complex semi-simple linear algebraic group without G_2 factors, B a Borel subgroup of G and T a maximal torus in B. The flag variety G/B is a projective G-homogeneous variety whose tangent space at the identity coset is isomorphic, as a B-module, to Lie(G)/Lie(B). Recall that if w is an element of the Weyl group W of the pair (G,T), the Schubert variety X(w) in G/B is by definition the closure of the Bruhat cell BwB. In this note we prove that X(w) is non-singular iff the following two conditions hold: 1) its Poincaré polynomial is palindromic and 2) the tangent space TE(X(w)) to th…
Let $G$ be a complex reductive algebraic group, $T$ a maximal torus in $G$, $B$ a Borel subgroup of $G$ containing $T$, $W$ the Weyl group of $G$ with respect to $T$. Let $w$ be an element of $W$. Denote by $X_w$ the Schubert subvariety of the flag variety $G/B$ corresponding to $w$. Let $C_w$ be the tangent cone to $X_w$ at the point $p=eB$ (we consider $C_w$ as a subscheme of the tangent space to $G/B$ at $p$). In 2011, D.Yu. Eliseev and A.N. Panov computed all tangent cones for $G=SL(n)$, $n<6$. Using their computations, A.N. Panov formulated the following Conjecture: if $w$, $w'$ are disti…
It is well-known that the $T$-fixed points of a Schubert variety in the flag variety $GL_n(\mathbb{C})/B$ can be characterized purely combinatorially in terms of Bruhat order on the symmetric group $\mathfrak{S}_n$. In a recent preprint, Cho, Hong, and Lee give a combinatorial description of the $T$-fixed points of Hessenberg analogues of Schubert varieties (which we call Hessenberg Schubert varieties) in a regular semisimple Hessenberg variety. This note gives an interpretation of their result in terms of Bruhat order by making use of a partition of the symmetric group defined using so-called…
Tangent spaces of spherical Schubert varieties and counterexamples to the reducedness conjecture
Yau Mathematical Sciences Center, Tsinghua University（清华大学丘成桐数学科学中心）；Department of Mathematics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill（北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校数学系）；Department of Mathematics, Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics（江西财经大学数学系）
Tangent spaces to Schubert varieties of type A were characterized by Lakshmibai and Seshadri. This result was extended to the other classical types by Lakshmibai. We give a uniform characterization of tangent spaces to Schubert varieties in cominuscule G/P. Our results extend beyond cominuscule G/P; they describe the tangent space to any Schubert variety in G/B at a point xB, where x is a cominuscule Weyl group element in the sense of Peterson. Our results also give partial information about the tangent space to any Schubert variety at any point. Our method is to describe the tangent spaces of…
The purpose of this note is to give a refinement of the product formula proved in [1] for the Poincare polynomial of a smooth Schubert variety in the flag variety of an algebraic group G over C. This yields a factorization of the number of elements in a Bruhat interval [e,w] in the Weyl group W of G provided the Schubert variety associated to w is smooth. This gives an elementary necessary condition for a Schubert variety in the flag variety to be smooth.
This paper studies the singularities of affine Schubert varieties in the affine Grassmannian (of type $\mathrm{A}^{(1)}_\ell$). For two classes of affine Schubert varieties, we determine the singular loci; and for one class, we also determine explicitly the tangent spaces at singular points. For a general affine Schubert variety, we give partial results on the singular locus.
For the toric variety X associated to the Bruhat poset of Schubert varieties in the Grassmannian, we describe the singular locus in terms of the faces of the associated polyhedral cone. We also determine the tangent cones at the maximal singularities of X. These turn out to be again toric varieties. In the case of X being associated to the Bruhat poset of Schubert varieties in the Grassmannian of 2-planes in a n-dimensional vector space (over the base field), we also prove a certain product formula relating the multiplicities at certain singular points.
We show that, with coefficients in a field or a complete local ring k, the Braden-MacPherson algorithm computes the stalks of parity sheaves with coefficients in k. As a consequence we deduce that the Braden-MacPherson algorithm may be used to calculate the characters of tilting modules for algebraic groups and show that the p-smooth locus of (Kac-Moody) Schubert varieties agrees with the rationally smooth locus, if the underlying Bruhat graph satisfies a GKM-condition.
Let G be a simple and simply-connected complex algebraic group, P \subset G a parabolic subgroup. We prove an unpublished result of D. Peterson which states that the quantum cohomology QH^*(G/P) of a flag variety is, up to localization, a quotient of the homology H_*(Gr_G) of the affine Grassmannian \Gr_G of G. As a consequence, all three-point genus zero Gromov-Witten invariants of $G/P$ are identified with homology Schubert structure constants of H_*(Gr_G), establishing the equivalence of the quantum and homology affine Schubert calculi. For the case G = B, we use the Mihalcea's equivariant …
We compute the initial ideals, with respect to certain conveniently chosen term orders, of ideals of tangent cones at torus fixed points to Schubert varieties in orthogonal Grassmannians. The initial ideals turn out to be square-free monomial ideals and therefore Stanley-Reisner face rings of simplicial complexes. We describe these complexes. The maximal faces of these complexes encode certain sets of non-intersecting lattice paths.
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…
The set of T-invariant curves in a Schubert variety through a T-fixed point is relatively easy to characterize in terms of its weights, but the tangent space is more difficult. We prove that the weights of the tangent space are contained in the rational cone generated by the weights of the T-invariant curves. In simply laced types, this remains true if "rational" is replaced by "integral". We also obtain conditions under which every weight of the tangent space is the weight of a T-invariant curve, as well as a smoothness criterion. The results rely on equivariant K-theory, as well as the study…
Let $G$ be a reductive complex algebraic group, $T$ a maximal torus of $G$, $B$ a Borel subgroup of $G$ containing $T$, $Φ$ the root system of $G$ w.r.t. $T$, $W$ the Weyl group of $Φ$. Denote by $\Fo = G/B$ the flag variety, by $X_w$ the Schubert subvariety of $\Fo$ associated with an element $w\in W$, and by $C_w$ the tangent cone to $X_w$ at the point $p = eB$. Then $C_w$ is a subscheme of the tangent space $T_pX_w\subseteq T_p\Fo$. Suppose $w$, $w'$ are distinct involutions in $W$. Using the so-called Kostant--Kumar polynomials, we show that if every irreducible component of $Φ$ is of type…
We give a closed-form formula for the Hilbert function of the tangent cone at the identity of a Schubert variety X in the Grassmannian in both group theoretic and combinatorial terms. We also give a formula for the multiplicity of X at the identity, and a Grobner basis for the ideal defining the intersection of X with the opposite cell as a closed subvariety of the opposite cell. We give conjectures for the Hilbert function and multiplicity at points other than the identity.
We study the Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity of tangent cones of Schubert varieties. Conjectures about this statistic are presented; these are proved for the covexillary case. This builds on work of L. Li and the author on these tangent cones, as well as that of J. Rajchgot-Y. Ren-C. Robichaux-A. St. Dizier-A. Weigandt and J. Rajchgot-C. Robichaux-A. Weigandt on tableau rules for computing regularity of some matrix Schubert varieties.
We examine quadratic surfaces in 3-space that are tangent to nine given figures. These figures can be points, lines, planes or quadrics. The numbers of tangent quadrics were determined by Hermann Schubert in 1879. We study the associated systems of polynomial equations, also in the space of complete quadrics, and we solve them using certified numerical methods. Our aim is to show that Schubert's problems are fully real.
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 give a complete list of smooth and rationally smooth normalized Schubert varieties in the twisted affine Grassmannian associated with a tamely ramified group and a special vertex of its Bruhat-Tits building. The particular case of the quasi-minuscule Schubert variety in the quasi-split but non-split form of ${\rm Spin}_8$ ("ramified triality") provides an input needed in the article by He-Pappas-Rapoport classifying Shimura varieties with good or semi-stable reduction.
We show that an element $w$ of a finite Weyl group $W$ is rationally smooth if and only if the hyperplane arrangement $I$ associated to the inversion set of $w$ is inductively free, and the product $(d_1+1) \cdots (d_l+1)$ of the coexponents $d_1,\ldots,d_l$ is equal to the size of the Bruhat interval $[e,w]$, where $e$ is the identity in $W$. As part of the proof, we describe exactly when a rationally smooth element in a finite Weyl group has a chain Billey-Postnikov decomposition. For finite Coxeter groups, we show that chain Billey-Postnikov decompositions are connected with certain modular…
We describe an algorithm which pattern embeds, in the sense of Woo-Yong, any Bruhat interval of a symmetric group into an interval whose extremes lie in the same right Kazhdan-Lusztig cell. This apparently harmless fact has applications in finding examples of reducible associated varieties of $\mathfrak{sl}_n$-highest weight modules, as well as in the study of $W$-graphs for symmetric groups, and in comparing various bases of irreducible representations of the symmetric group or its Hecke algebra. For example, we are able to systematically produce many negative answers to a question from the 1…
Smooth Schubert varieties in rational homogeneous manifolds of Picard number 1 are horospherical varieties. We characterize standard embeddings of smooth Schubert varieties in rational homogeneous manifolds of Picard number 1 by means of varieties of minimal rational tangents. In particular, we mainly consider nonhomogeneous smooth Schubert varieties in symplectic Grassmannians and in the 20-dimensional $F_4$-homogeneous manifold associated to a short simple root.
Using Grothendieck's "functor of points" approach to algebraic geometry, we define a new infinite-dimensional algebro-geometric flag space as a $k$-functor (for $k$ a ring) which maps a $k$-algebra $R$ to the set of certain well-ordered chains of submodules of an infinite rank free $R$-module. This generalizes the well known construction of a $k$-functor that is represented by the classical (i.e. finite-dimensional) full flag scheme. We prove that as in the finite-dimensional case, there is an action of a general linear group on our flag space, that the stabilizer of the standard flag is the s…
Let $G$ be a simple, simply connected algebraic group over the field of complex numbers. We give a necessary and a sufficient condition for a Schubert variety $X(τ)$ for which all the higher cohomologies $H^{i}(X(τ), E)$ vanish for the restriction $E$ of the tangent bundle of $G/B$ to X(τ)$. We further show that the global sections $H^{0}(X(τ), E)$ is the adjoint representation of $G$ when $G$ is simply laced.
A Richardson variety $X_\ga^\gc$ in the Orthogonal Grassmannian is defined to be the intersection of a Schubert variety $X^\gc$ in the Orthogonal Grassmannian and a opposite Schubert variety $X_\ga$ therein. We give an explicit description of the initial ideal (with respect to certain conveniently chosen term order) for the ideal of the tangent cone at any $T$-fixed point of $X_\ga^\gc$, thus generalizing a result of Raghavan-Upadhyay \cite{Ra-Up2}. Our proof is based on a generalization of the Robinson-Schensted-Knuth (RSK) correspondence, which we call the Orthogonal bounded RSK (OBRSK). The…
Let X be a minuscule Schubert variety and $α$ a class of 1-cycle on X. In this article we describe the irreducible components of the scheme of morphisms of class $α$ from a rational curve to X. The irreducible components are described in the following way : the class $α$ can be seen as an element of $Pic(X)^*$ the dual of the Picard group. Because any Weil-divisor need not to be a Cartier-divisor, there is (only) a surjective map $s:A^1(X)^*\to Pic(X)^*$ from the dual of the group of codimension 1 cycles to the dual of the Picard group. The irreducible components are given by the effective ele…
We first describe the tangent space to the affine flag manifold associated to a simple algebraic group over $\mathbb{C}$ at the distinguished point starting from standard definitions. We then construct projective lines in the affine flag manifold tangent to given root vectors associated to imaginary roots of the corresponding affine Kac-Moody algebra and describe in which Schubert varieties they lie.
We consider the T-equivariant cohomology of Bott-Samelson desingularisations of Schubert varieties in the flag manifold of a connected semi-simple complex algebraic group of adjoint type with maximal torus T. We construct a combinatorially pure (in the sense of T. Braden and R. Macpherson) sheaf on the Bruhat graph of the associated Weyl group such that its global sections give the T-equivariant cohomology of our Bott-Samelson resolution.
The coefficients of the Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomials $P_{v,w}(q)$ are nonnegative integers that are upper semicontinuous on Bruhat order. Conjecturally, the same properties hold for $h$-polynomials $H_{v,w}(q)$ of local rings of Schubert varieties. This suggests a parallel between the two families of polynomials. We prove our conjectures for Grassmannians, and more generally, covexillary Schubert varieties in complete flag varieties, by deriving a combinatorial formula for $H_{v,w}(q)$. We introduce \emph{drift configurations} to formulate a new and compatible combinatorial rule for $P_{v,w}(q)…
Let G be a semi-simple algebraic group over ${\mathbb C}$, B a Borel subgroup of G and T a maximal torus in B. A beautiful unpublished result of Dale Peterson says that if G is simply laced, then every rationally smooth point of a Schubert variety X in G/B is nonsingular in X. The purpose of this paper is to generalize this result to arbitrary T-stable subvarieties of G/B, the only restriction being that G contains no $G_2$ factors. In particular, we show that a Schubert variety X in such a G/B is nonsingular if and only if all the reduced tangent cones of X are linear.
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…
The Richardson variety $X_w^v$ is defined to be the intersection of the Schubert variety $X_w$ and the opposite Schubert variety $X^v$. For $X_w^v$ in the Grassmannian, we obtain a standard monomial basis for the homogeneous coordinate ring of $X_w^v$. We use this basis first to prove the vanishing of $H^i(X_w^v,L^m)$, $i > 0 $, $m \geq 0$, where $L$ is the restriction to $X_w^v$ of the ample generator of the Picard group of the Grassmannian; then to determine a basis for the tangent space and a criterion for smoothness for $X_w^v$ at any $T$-fixed point $e_\t$; and finally to derive a recursi…
While the intersection of the Grassmannian Bruhat decompositions for all coordinate flags is an intractable mess, the intersection of only the 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, Brown-Goodearl-Yakimov and the present authors. However, its cyclic-invariance is hidden in this description. Postnikov gave many cyclic-invariant ways to index the strata, and we give a new …
In this expository paper we describe a powerful combinatorial formula and its implications in geometry, topology, and algebra. This formula first appeared in the appendix of a book by Andersen, Jantzen, and Soergel. Sara Billey discovered it independently five years later, and it played a prominent role in her work to evaluate certain polynomials closely related to Schubert polynomials. Billey's formula relates many pieces of Schubert calculus: the geometry of Schubert varieties, the action of the torus on the flag variety, combinatorial data about permutations, the cohomology of the flag vari…
Lakshmibai, Mehta and Parameswaran (LMP) introduced the notion of maximal multiplicity vanishing in Frobenius splitting. In this paper we define the algebraic analogue of this concept and construct a Frobenius splitting vanishing with maximal multiplicity on the diagonal of the full flag variety. Our splitting induces a diagonal Frobenius splitting of maximal multiplicity for a special class of smooth Schubert varieties first considered by Kempf. Consequences are Frobenius splitting of tangent bundles, of blow-ups along the diagonal in flag varieties along with the LMP and Wahl conjectures in …
