Using a blend of combinatorics and geometry, we give an algorithm for algebraically finding all flags in any zero-dimensional intersection of Schubert varieties with respect to three transverse flags, and more generally, any number of flags. In particular, the number of flags in a triple intersection is also a structure constant for the cohomology ring of the flag manifold. Our algorithm is based on solving a limited number of determinantal equations for each intersection (far fewer than the naive approach). These equations may be used to compute Galois and monodromy groups of intersections of Schubert varieties. We are able to limit the number of equations by using the permutation arrays of Eriksson and Linusson, and their permutation array varieties, introduced as generalizations of Schubert varieties. We show that there exists a unique permutation array corresponding to each realizable Schubert problem and give a simple recurrence to compute the corresponding rank table, giving in particular a simple criterion for a Littlewood-Richardson coefficient to be 0. We describe pathologies of Eriksson and Linusson's permutation array varieties (failure of existence, irreducibility, equidimensionality, and reducedness of equations), and define the more natural permutation array schemes. In particular, we give several counterexamples to the Realizability Conjecture based on classical projective geometry. Finally, we give examples where Galois/monodromy groups experimentally appear to be smaller than expected.
In this article, we describe explicitely the Gorenstein locus of all minuscule Schubert varieties. This proves a special case of a conjecture of A. Woo and A. Yong (see math.AG/0603273) on the Gorenstein locus of Schubert varieties.
Schubert varieties in the full flag variety of Kac-Moody type are indexed by elements of the corresponding Weyl group. We give a practical criterion for when two such Schubert varieties (from potentially different flag varieties) are isomorphic, in terms of the Cartan matrix and reduced words for the indexing Weyl group elements. As a corollary, we show that two such Schubert varieties are isomorphic if and only if there is an isomorphism between their integral cohomology rings that preserves the Schubert basis.
We characterize by pattern avoidance the Schubert varieties for GL_n which are local complete intersections (lci). For those Schubert varieties which are local complete intersections, we give an explicit minimal set of equations cutting out their neighborhoods at the identity. Although the statement of our characterization only requires ordinary pattern avoidance, showing that the Schubert varieties not satisfying our conditions are not lci appears to require working with more general notions of pattern avoidance. The Schubert varieties defined by inclusions, originally introduced by Gasharov …
We enumerate the number of staircase diagrams over classically finite $E$-type Dynkin diagrams, extending the work of Richmond and Slofstra (Staircase Diagrams and Enumeration of smooth Schubert varieties) and completing the enumeration of staircase diagrams over finite type Dynkin diagrams. The staircase diagrams are in bijection to smooth and rationally smooth Schubert varieties over $E$-type thereby giving an enumeration of these varieties.
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 consider smooth complete intersection Calabi-Yau 3-folds in minuscule Schubert varieties, and study their mirror symmetry by degenerating the ambient Schubert varieties to Hibi toric varieties. We list all possible Calabi-Yau 3-folds of this type up to deformation equivalences, and find a new example of smooth Calabi-Yau 3-folds of Picard number one; a complete intersection in a locally factorial Schubert variety ${\boldsymbolΣ}$ of the Cayley plane ${\mathbb{OP}}^2$. We calculate topological invariants and BPS numbers of this Calabi-Yau 3-fold and conjecture that it has a non-trivial Fouri…
We show that the Chern-Schwartz-MacPherson class of a Schubert cell in a Grassmannian is represented by a reduced and irreducible subvariety in each degree. This gives an affirmative answer to a positivity conjecture of Aluffi and Mihalcea.
We give explicit formulas for the Chern-Schwartz-MacPherson classes of all Schubert varieties in the Grassmannian of $d$-planes in a vector space, and conjecture that these classes are effective. We prove this is the case for (very) small values of $d$.
A theorem of Ryan and Wolper states that a type A Schubert variety is smooth if and only if it is an iterated fibre bundle of Grassmannians. We extend this theorem to arbitrary finite type, showing that a Schubert variety in a generalized flag variety is rationally smooth if and only if it is an iterated fibre bundle of rationally smooth Grassmannian Schubert varieties. The proof depends on deep combinatorial results of Billey-Postnikov on Weyl groups. We determine all smooth and rationally smooth Grassmannian Schubert varieties, and give a new proof of Peterson's theorem that all simply-laced…
We give a simple necessary and sufficient condition for a Schubert variety $X_w$ to be smooth when $w$ is a freely braided element of a simply laced Weyl group; such elements were introduced by the authors in a previous work (math.CO/0301104). This generalizes in one direction a result of Fan concerning varieties indexed by short-braid avoiding elements. We also derive generating functions for the freely braided elements that index smooth Schubert varieties. All results are stated and proved only for the simply laced case.
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 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 $\tilde{A}$.
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.
We enumerate smooth and rationally smooth Schubert varieties in the classical finite types A, B, C, and D, extending Haiman's enumeration for type A. To do this enumeration, we introduce a notion of staircase diagrams on a graph. These combinatorial structures are collections of steps of irregular size, forming interconnected staircases over the given graph. Over a Dynkin-Coxeter graph, the set of "nearly-maximally labelled" staircase diagrams is in bijection with the set of Schubert varieties with a complete Billey-Postnikov (BP) decomposition. We can then use an earlier result of the authors…
Let G be a simply-connected simple compact Lie group over the complex numbers. The affine Grassmannian is a projective ind-variety, homotopy-equivalent to the loop space of G and closely analogous to a maximal flag variety of the classical Grassmannian manifold. It has a Schubert cell decomposition indexed by the coroot lattice or equivalently by the minimal length coset representatives for the affine Weyl group modulo the Weyl group for G. The closure of an affine Schubert cell is a finite dimensional projective variety that we call an affine Schubert variety. In this paper we completely dete…
After proving that every Schubert variety in the full flag variety of a complex reductive group $G$ is a general Hessenberg variety, we show that not all such Schubert varieties are adjoint Hessenberg varieties. In fact, in types A and C, we provide pattern avoidance criteria implying that the proportion of Schubert varieties that are adjoint Hessenberg varieties approaches zero as the rank of $G$ increases. We show also that in type A, some Schubert varieties are not isomorphic to any adjoint Hessenberg variety.
By extending the notion of grid classes to include infinite grids, we establish a structural characterisation of the simple permutations in Av(4231, 35142, 42513, 351624), a pattern class which has three different connections with algebraic geometry, including the specification of indices of Schubert varieties defined by inclusions. This characterisation leads to the enumeration of the class.
We consider linear error correcting codes associated to higher dimensional projective varieties defined over a finite field. The problem of determining the basic parameters of such codes often leads to some interesting and difficult questions in combinatorics and algebraic geometry. This is illustrated by codes associated to Schubert varieties in Grassmannians, called Schubert codes, which have recently been studied. The basic parameters such as the length, dimension and minimum distance of these codes are known only in special cases. An upper bound for the minimum distance is known and it is …
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…
Let $r < n$ be positive integers and further suppose $r$ and $n$ are coprime. We study the GIT quotient of Schubert varieties $X(w)$ in the Grassmannian $G_{r,n}$, admitting semistable points for the action of $T$ with respect to the $T$-linearized line bundle ${\cal L}(nω_r)$. We give necessary and sufficient combinatorial conditions for the GIT quotient $T\backslash\mkern-6mu\backslash X(w)^{ss}_{T}({\cal L}(nω_r))$ to be smooth.
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 note computes a Gröbner basis for the ideal defining a union of Schubert varieties. More precisely, it computes a Gröbner basis for unions of schemes given by northwest rank conditions on the space of all matrices of a fixed size. Schemes given by northwest rank conditions include classical determinantal varieties and matrix Schubert varieties--closures of Schubert varieties lifted from the flag manifold to the space of matrices.
Schubert varieties in finite dimensional flag manifolds G/P are a well-studied family of projective varieties indexed by elements of the corresponding Weyl group W. In particular, there are many tests for smoothness and rational smoothness of these varieties. One key result due to Lakshmibai-Sandhya is that in type A the smooth Schubert varieties are precisely those that are indexed by permutations that avoid the patterns 4231 and 3412. Recently, there has been a flurry of research related to the infinite dimensional analogs of flag manifolds corresponding with G being a Kac-Moody group and W …
Extending results of Wyser, we determine formulas for the equivariant cohomology classes of closed orbits of certain families of spherical subgroups of $GL_n$ on the flag variety $GL_n/B$. Putting this together with a slight extension of the results of Can-Joyce-Wyser, we arrive at a family of polynomial identities which show that certain explicit sums of Schubert polynomials factor as products of linear forms.
We study subsets of Grassmann varieties G(l,m) over a field F, such that these subsets are unions of Schubert cycles, with respect to a fixed flag. We study the linear spans of, and in case of positive characteristic, the number of points on such unions over finite fields. Moreover we study a geometric duality of such unions, and give a combinatorial interpretation of this duality. We discuss the maximum number of points over a finite field for the Schubert unions of a given spanning dimension, and we give some applications to coding theory. We define Schubert union codes, and study the parame…
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 obtain new connections between permutation patterns and singularities of Schubert varieties, by giving a new characterization of Gorenstein varieties in terms of so called bivincular patterns. These are generalizations of classical patterns where conditions are placed on the location of an occurrence in a permutation, as well as on the values in the occurrence. This clarifies what happens when the requirement of smoothness is weakened to factoriality and further to Gorensteinness, extending work of Bousquet-Melou and Butler (2007), and Woo and Yong (2006). We also show how mesh patterns, in…
A permutation is called covexillary if it avoids the pattern $3412$. We construct an open embedding of a covexillary matrix Schubert variety into a Grassmannian Schubert variety. As applications of this embedding, we show that the characteristic cycles of covexillary Schubert varieties are irreducible, and provide a new proof of Lascoux's model computing Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomials of vexillary permutations. Combining the above embedding with earlier work of the author on the conormal varieties of Grassmannian Schubert varieties, we develop an algebraic criterion identifying the conormal varie…
A previous result of the authors with Chaput and Perrin states that the union of all rational curves of fixed degree passing through a Schubert variety in a homogeneous space G/P is again a Schubert variety. In this paper we identify this Schubert variety explicitly in terms of the Hecke product of Weyl group elements. We apply our result to give an explicit formula for any two-point Gromov-Witten invariant as well as a new proof of the quantum Chevalley formula and its equivariant generalization. We also recover a formula for the minimal degree of a rational curve between two given points in …
We give an explicit combinatorial description of the irreducible components of the singular locus of the Schubert variety X_w for any element w in S_n. Our description of the irreducible components is computationally more efficient (O(n^6)) than the previously best known algorithms. This result proves a conjecture of Lakshmibai and Sandhya regarding this singular locus. Furthermore, we give simple formulas for calculating the Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomials at the maximum singular points.
In this work we extend some previously known results on the automorphism group of Schubert varieties. We consider the Schubert conditions which define a Schubert variety. An automorphism of the Grassmannian fixes a Schubert variety contained in it if and only if it fixes certain elements of the flag used to define the Schubert conditions.
Knutson and Miller (2005) established a connection between the anti-diagonal Gröbner degenerations of matrix Schubert varieties and the pre-existing combinatorics of pipe dreams. They used this correspondence to give a geometrically-natural explanation for the appearance of the combinatorially-defined Schubert polynomials as representatives of Schubert classes. Recently, Hamaker, Pechenik, and Weigandt (2022) proposed a similar connection between diagonal degenerations of matrix Schubert varieties and bumpless pipe dreams, newer combinatorial objects introduced by Lam, Lee, and Shimozono (2021…
We express a Schubert expansion of the Chern-Mather class for Schubert varieties in the even orthogonal Grassmannian via integrals involving Pfaffians and pushforward of the small resolutions in the sense of Intersection Cohomology (IH) constructed by Sankaran and Vanchinathan, instead of the Nash blowup. The equivariant localization is employed to show the way of computing the integral. As a byproduct, we present the computations. For analogy and the completion of the method in ordinary Grassmannians, we also suggest Kazhdan-Lusztig classes associated to Schubert varieties in the Lagrangian a…
We introduce the notion of a cominuscule point in a Schubert variety in a generalized flag variety for a semisimple group. We derive formulas expressing the Hilbert series and multiplicity of a Schubert variety at a cominuscule point in terms of the restrictions of classes in torus-equivariant K-theory and cohomology to that point, generalizing previously known formulas for flag varieties of cominuscule type. Thus, we can calculate Hilbert series and multiplicities in cases where these were previously unknown. The formulas for Schubert varieties are special cases of more general formulas valid…
Let $B$ be a Borel subgroup of $\mathrm{GL}_n(\mathbb{C})$ and $\mathbb{T}$ a maximal torus contained in $B$. Then $\mathbb{T}$ acts on $\mathrm{GL}_{n}(\mathbb{C})/B$ and every Schubert variety is $\mathbb{T}$-invariant. We say that a Schubert variety is of complexity $k$ if a maximal $\mathbb{T}$-orbit in $X_w$ has codimension $k$. In this paper, we discuss topology, geometry, and combinatorics related to Schubert varieties of complexity one.
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.
We study twisted forms of Schubert cells in generalized Severi-Brauer varieties, and show that the codimension $2$ Chow groups of these varieties are torsion free in certain cases, using the topological filtration on their K-theory
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…
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…
We introduce new notions in elliptic Schubert calculus: the (twisted) Borisov-Libgober classes of Schubert varieties in general homogeneous spaces G/P. While these classes do not depend on any choice, they depend on a set of new variables. For the definition of our classes we calculate multiplicities of some divisors in Schubert varieties, which were only known for full flag varieties before. Our approach leads to a simple recursions for the elliptic classes. Comparing this recursion with R-matrix recursions of the so-called elliptic weight functions of Rimanyi-Tarasov-Varchenko we prove that …
