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 affine piece can be computed by combinatorial rules generalizing the Eulerian numbers. We give an equivalent formulation of this result in terms of roots. We conclude with a section on open questions.
We show that various genus zero Gromov-Witten invariants for flag varieties representing different homology classes are indeed the same. In particular, many of them are classical intersection numbers of Schubert cycles.
In this paper we generalize to the case of partial flags a result proved both by Spaltenstein and by Steinberg that relates the relative position of two complete flags and the irreducible components of the flag variety in which they lie, using the Robinson-Schensted-Knuth correspondence.
This paper introduces a two-parameter deformation of the cohomology of generalized flag varieties. One special case is the Belkale-Kumar deformation (used to study eigencones of Lie groups). Another picks out intersections of Schubert varieties that behave nicely under projections. Our construction yields a new proof that the Belkale-Kumar product is well-defined. This proof is shorter and more elementary than earlier proofs.
Flag matroids are combinatorial abstractions of flags of linear subspaces, just as matroids are of linear subspaces. We introduce the flag Dressian as a tropical analogue of the partial flag variety, and prove a correspondence between: (a) points on the flag Dressian, (b) valuated flag matroids, (c) flags of projective tropical linear spaces, and (d) coherent flag matroidal subdivisions. We introduce and characterize projective tropical linear spaces, which serve as a fundamental tool in our proof. We apply the correspondence to prove that all valuated flag matroids on ground set up to size 5 …
We propose a theory of combinatorially explicit Schubert polynomials which represent the Schubert classes in the Borel presentation of the cohomology ring of orthogonal flag varieties. We use these polynomials to describe the arithmetic Schubert calculus on these spaces. We also give a method to compute the natural arithmetic intersection numbers which arise, and prove that they are all rational numbers.
We study positivity notions for the tropicalization of type A flag varieties and the flag Dressian. We focus on the hollow case, where we have one constituent of rank 1 and another of corank 1. We characterize the three different notions that exist for this case in terms of Plücker coordinates. These notions are the tropicalization of the totally non-negative flag variety, Bruhat subdivisions and the non-negative flag Dressian. We show the first example where the first two concepts above do not coincide. In this case the non-negative flag Dressian equals the tropicalization of the Plücker non-…
We show a canonical injective morphism from the quantum cohomology ring QH(G/P) to the associated graded algebra of QH(G/B), which is with respect to a nice filtration on QH(G/B) introduced by Leung and the author. This tells us the vanishing of a lot of genus zero, three-pointed Gromov-Witten invariants of flag varieties G/P.
We prove that the sheaf Euler characteristic of the product of a Schubert class and an opposite Schubert class in the quantum $K$-theory ring of a (generalized) flag variety $G/P$ is equal to $q^d$, where $d$ is the smallest degree of a rational curve joining the two Schubert varieties. This implies that the sum of the structure constants of any product of Schubert classes is equal to 1. Along the way, we provide a description of the smallest degree $d$ in terms of its projections to flag varieties defined by maximal parabolic subgroups.
The B. and M. Shapiro conjecture stated that all solutions of the Schubert Calculus problems associated with real points on the rational normal curve should be real. For Grassmannians, it was proved by Mukhin, Tarasov and Varchenko. For flag varieties, Sottile found a counterexample and suggested that all solutions should be real under certain monotonicity conditions. In this paper, we compute lower bounds on the number of real solutions for some special cases of the B. and M. Shapiro conjecture for flag varieties, when Sottile's monotonicity conditions are not satisfied.
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 construct a family of flat semitoric degenerations for the Hibi variety of every finite distributive lattice. The irreducible components of each degeneration are the toric varieties associated with polytopes forming a regular subdivision of the order polytope of the underlying poset. These components are themselves Hibi varieties. For each degeneration in our family we also define the corresponding weight polytope and embed the degeneration into the associated toric variety as the union of orbit closures given by a set of faces. Every such weight polytope projects onto the order polytope wi…
Let X be the flag variety of the symplectic group. We propose a theory of combinatorially explicit Schubert polynomials which represent the Schubert classes in the Borel presentation of the cohomology ring of X. We use these polynomials to describe the arithmetic Schubert calculus on X. Moreover, we give a method to compute the natural arithmetic Chern numbers on X, and show that they are all rational numbers.
Our concern in this paper is the dimension and inclusion relations of Schubert varieties in twisted partial affine flag varieties. In the end we apply our results to some local models of certain Schubert varieties.
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.
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…
In this paper, we study equivariant vector bundles on partial flag varieties arising from Schur functors. We show that a partial flag variety with three or more steps does not admit an Ulrich bundle of this form with respect to the minimal ample class. We classify Ulrich bundles of this form on two-step flag varieties F(2,n;n+1), F(2,n;n+2), F(k,k+1;n), and F(k,k+2;n). We give a conjectural description of the two-step flag varieties which admit such Ulrich bundles. Our results provide counterexamples to conjectures by Costa and Miro-Roig.
In this paper, we study equivariant vector bundles on partial flag varieties arising from Schur functors. We show that a partial flag variety with three or more steps does not admit an Ulrich bundle of this form with respect to the minimal ample class. We classify Ulrich bundles of this form on two-step flag varieties F(1,n-1;n), F(2,n-1;n), F(2,n-2;n), F(k,k+1;n) and F(k,k+2;n). We give a conjectural description of the two-step flag varieties which admit such Ulrich bundles.
We prove the existence of tilting objects on generalized Brauer--Severi varieties, some relative flags and some twisted forms of relative flags. As an application we obtain tilting objects on certain homogeneous varieties of classical type and on certain twisted forms of homogeneous varieties of type $A_n$ and $C_n$.
Based on the Brieskorn-Slodowy-Grothendieck diagram, we write the holomorphic structures (or filtrations) of the ADE Lie algebra bundles over the corresponding type ADE flag varieties, over the cotangent bundles of these flag varieties, and over the corresponding type $ADE$ singular surfaces. The main tool is the cohomology of line bundles over flag varieties and their cotangent bundles.
Following the historical track in pursuing $T$-equivariant flat toric degenerations of flag varieties and spherical varieties, we explain how powerful tools in algebraic geometry and representation theory, such as canonical bases, Newton-Okounkov bodies, PBW-filtrations and cluster algebras come to push the subject forward.
The rim-hook rule for quantum cohomology of the Grassmannian allows one to reduce quantum calculations to classical calculations in the cohomology of the Grassmannian. We use the Abelian/non-Abelian correspondence for cohomology to prove a rim-hook removal rule for the cohomology of quiver flag varieties. Quiver flag varieties are generalisations of type A flag varieties; this result is new even in the flag case. This gives an effective way of computing products in their cohomology, reducing computations to that in the cohomology ring of the Grassmannian. We then prove a quantum rim-hook rule …
We compute the automorphism groups of finite and cofinite ind-grassmannians, as well as of the ind-variety of maximal flags indexed by Z_{>0}. We pay special attention to differences with the case of ordinary flag varieties.
We obtain an explicit presentation of the equivariant cobordism ring of a complete flag variety. An immediate corollary is a Borel presentation of the ordinary cobordism ring. Another application is an equivariant Schubert calculus in cobordism. We also describe the rational cobordism rings of wonderful symmetric varieties of minimal rank.
A classification of double flag varieties of complexity 0 and 1 is obtained. An application of this problem to decomposing tensor products of irreducible representations of semisimple Lie groups is considered.
We define the class of admissible linear embeddings of flag varieties. The definition is given in the general language of algebraic geometry. We then prove that an admissible linear embedding of flag varieties has a certain explicit form in terms of linear algebra. This result enables us to show that any direct limit of admissible embeddings of flag varieties is isomorphic to an ind-variety of generalized flags as defined in [DP]. These latter ind-varieties have been introduced in terms of the ind-group SL(\infty) (respectively, O(\infty) or Sp(\infty) for isotropic generalized flags), and 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…
The aim of this paper is to construct certain closed embeddings of Grassmannian varieties, using tensor operations on vector bundles. These embeddings generalize Segre and Plücker morphisms.
We investigate the secant dimensions and the identifiablity of flag varieties parametrizing flag of sub vector spaces of a fixed vector space. We give numerical conditions ensuring that secant varieties of flag varieties have the expected dimension, and that a general point on these secant varieties is identifiable.
Using Quot schemes and a localization theorem we study Gromov-Witten invariants for partial flag varieties. The strategy is to extend A. Bertram's result of Gromov-Witten invariants for special Schubert varieties of Grassmannians to the case of partial flag varieties. To do so a Grothendieck's Quot scheme is generalized for flags and proven to be an irreducible, rational, smooth, projective variety following Strømme \cite{St}.
The Witt ring of a complex flag variety describes the interesting -- i.e. torsion -- part of its topological KO-theory. We show that for a large class of flag varieties, these Witt rings are exterior algebras, and that the degrees of the generators can be determined by Dynkin diagram combinatorics. Besides full flag varieties, projective spaces, and other varieties whose Witt rings were previously known, this class contains many flag varieties of exceptional types. Complete results are obtained for flag varieties of types G2 and F4. The results also extend to flag varieties over other algebrai…
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 prove some vanishing theorems for the twisted Dolbeault cohomology of the complete flag varieties associated to a simple, simply connected algebraic group.
We study the combinatorics of pseudoline arrangements and their relation to the geometry of flag and Schubert varieties. We associate to each pseudoline arrangement two polyhedral cones, defined in a dual manner. We prove that one of them is the weighted string cone by Littelmann and Berenstein-Zelevinsky. For the other we show how it arises in the framework of cluster varieties and mirror symmetry by Gross-Hacking-Keel-Kontsevich: for the flag variety the cone is the tropicalization of their superpotential while for Schubert varieties a restriction of the superpotential is necessary. We prove…
We classify all products of flag varieties with finitely many orbits under the diagonal action of the general linear group. We also classify the orbits in each case and construct explicit representatives. This generalizes the classical Schubert decompostion, which states that the GL(n)-orbits on a product of two flag varieties correspond to permutations. Our main tool is the theory of quiver representations.
We introduce two new general methods to compute the Chow motives of twisted flag varieties and settle a 20-year-old conjecture of Markus Rost about the Rost invariant for groups of type E7.
Characteristic classes of Schubert varieties can be used to study the geometry and the combinatorics of homogeneous spaces. We prove a relation between elliptic classes of Schubert varieties on a generalized full flag variety and those on its Langlands dual. This new symmetry is only revealed if Schubert calculus is elevated from cohomology or K theory to the elliptic level.
Let $\SF^a_λ$ be the degenerate symplectic flag variety. These are projective singular irreducible $\bG_a^M$ degenerations of the classical flag varieties for symplectic group $Sp_{2n}$. We give an explicit construction for the varieties $\SF^a_λ$ and construct their desingularizations, similar to the Bott-Samelson resolutions in the classical case. We prove that $\SF^a_\la$ are normal locally complete intersections with terminal and rational singularities. We also show that these varieties are Frobenius split. Using the above mentioned results, we prove an analogue of the Borel-Weil-Bott theo…
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 give the construction of weighted Lagranngiann Grassmannians$wLGr(3,6)$ and weighted partial $A_3$ flag variety $wFl_{1,3}$ coming from the symplectic Lie group $Sp(6,\mathbb C)$ and the general linear group $GL(4,\mathbb C)$ respectively. We give general formulas for their Hilbert series in terms of Lie theoretic data. We use them as key varieties (Format) to construct some families of polarized 3-folds in codimension 7 and 9. At the end, we list all the distinct weighted flag varieties in codimension $4\le c\le 10$.
Let G be a semisimple affine algebraic group and P a parabolic subgroup of G. We classify all flag varieties G/P which admit an action of the commutative unipotent group G_a^n with an open orbit.
These notes are the written version of my lectures at the Banach Center mini-school "Schubert Varieties" in Warsaw, May 18-22, 2003. Their aim is to give a self-contained exposition of some geometric aspects of Schubert calculus.
The main goal of this paper is to give a unified description for the structure of the small quantum cohomology rings for all homogeneous spaces of SL_n(C).
Linear degenerate flag varieties are degenerations of flag varieties as quiver Grassmannians. For type A flag varieties, we obtain characterizations of flatness, irreducibility and normality of these degenerations via rank tuples. Some of them are shown to be isomorphic to Schubert varieties and can be realized as highest weight orbits of partially degenerate Lie algebras, generalizing the corresponding results on degenerate flag varieties. To study normality, cell decompositions of quiver Grassmannians are constructed in a wider context of equioriented quivers of type A.
We study geometric and combinatorial properties of the degenerate flag varieties of type A. These varieties are acted upon by the automorphism group of a certain representation of a type A quiver, containing a maximal torus T. Using the group action, we describe the moment graphs, encoding the zero- and one-dimensional T-orbits. We also study the smooth and singular loci of the degenerate flag varieties. We show that the Euler characteristic of the smooth locus is equal to the large Schröder number and the Poincaré polynomial is given by a natural statistics counting the number of diagonal ste…
We review the construction of families of projective varieties, in particular Calabi--Yau threefolds, as quasilinear sections in weighted flag varieties. We also describe a construction of tautological orbi-bundles on these varieties, which may be of interest in heterotic model building.
These are extended notes of a talk given at Maurice Auslander Distinguished Lectures and International Conference (Woods Hole, MA) in April 2013. Their aim is to give an introduction into Schubert calculus on Grassmannians and flag varieties. We discuss various aspects of Schubert calculus, such as applications to enumerative geometry, structure of the cohomology rings of Grassmannians and flag varieties, Schur and Schubert polynomials. We conclude with a survey of results of V.Kiritchenko, V.Timorin and the author on a new approach to Schubert calculus on full flag varieties via combinatorics…
