The Shapiro conjecture in the real Schubert calculus, while likely true for Grassmannians, fails to hold for flag manifolds, but in a very interesting way. We give a refinement of the Shapiro conjecture for the flag manifold and present massive (15.76 gigahertz-years) computational experimentation in support of this refined conjecture.
We also prove the conjecture in some special cases using discriminants and establish relationships between different cases of the conjecture.
Many aspects of Schubert calculus are easily modeled on a computer. This enables large-scale experimentation to investigate subtle and ill-understood phenomena in the Schubert calculus. A well-known web of conjectures and results in the real Schubert calculus has been inspired by this continuing experimentation. A similarly rich story concerning intrinsic structure, or Galois groups, of Schubert problems is also beginning to emerge from experimentation. This showcases new possibilities for the use of computers in mathematical research.
The Shapiro conjecture in the real Schubert calculus fails to hold for flag manifolds, but in a very interesting way. In this extended abstract, we give a refinement of that conjecture for the flag manifold and present massive experimentation (over 12 GigaHertz-Years) that supports our refined conjecture. We also establish relationships between different cases of the conjecture and describe some new phenomena uncovered in this experimentation.
We show that general isotropic flags for odd-orthogonal and symplectic groups are general for Schubert calculus on the classical Grassmannian in that Schubert cells defined by such flags meet transversally. This strengthens a result of Belkale and Kumar in arXiv:0708.0398.
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 previously obtained a congruence modulo four for the number of real solutions to many Schubert problems on a square Grassmannian given by osculating flags. Here, we consider Schubert problems given by more general isotropic flags, and prove this congruence modulo four for the largest class of Schubert problems that could be expected to exhibit this congruence.
We use incidence relations running in two directions in order to construct a Kempf-Laksov type resolution for any Schubert variety of the complete flag manifold but also an embedded resolution for any Schubert variety in the Grassmannian. These constructions are alternatives to the celebrated Bott-Samelson resolutions. The second process led to the introduction of W-flag varieties, algebro-geometric objects that interpolate between the standard flag manifolds and products of Grassmannians, but which are singular in general. The surprising simple desingularization of a particular such type of v…
This paper is concerned with the study of spaces of naturally defined cycles associated to SL(n,R)-flag domains. These are compact complex submanifolds in open orbits of real semisimple Lie groups in flag domains of their complexification. It is known that there are optimal Schubert varieties which intersect the cycles transversally in finitely many points and in particular determine them in homology. Here we give a precise description of these Schubert varieties in terms of certain subsets of the Weyl group and compute their total number. Furthermore, we give an explicit description of the po…
We obtain an algorithm computing the Chern-Schwartz-MacPherson (CSM) classes of Schubert cells in a generalized flag manifold G/B. In analogy to how the ordinary divided difference operators act on Schubert classes, each CSM class of a Schubert class is obtained by applying certain Demazure-Lusztig type operators to the CSM class of a cell of dimension one less. These operators define a representation of the Weyl group on the homology of G/B. By functoriality, we deduce algorithmic expressions for CSM classes of Schubert cells in any flag manifold G/P. We conjecture that the CSM classes of Sch…
We describe a general framework for large-scale computational experiments in mathematics using computer resources that are available in most mathematics departments. This framework was developed for an experiment that is helping to formulate and test conjectures in the real Schubert calculus. Largely using machines in instructional computer labs during off-hours and University breaks, it consumed in excess of 350 GigaHertz-years of computing in its first six months of operation, solving over 1.1 billion polynomial systems.
Let $P$ be a parabolic subgroup in $G=SL_n(\mathbf k)$, for $\mathbf k$ an algebraically closed field. We show that there is a $G$-stable closed subvariety of an affine Schubert variety in an affine partial flag variety which is a natural compactification of the cotangent bundle $T^*G/P$. Restricting this identification to the conormal variety $N^*X(w)$ of a Schubert divisor $X(w)$ in $G/P$, we show that there is a compactification of $N^*X(w)$ as an affine Schubert variety. It follows that $N^*X(w)$ is normal, Cohen-Macaulay, and Frobenius split.
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.
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…
We introduce analogs of the Kempf--Laksov desingularizations of Schubert bundles in (non-necessary Lagrangian) symplectic Grassmann bundles. In this setting, these are (possibly singular) irreducible flag bundles that are birational to Schubert bundles, and can be described as chains of zero-loci of regular sections in projectivized bundles. The orthogonal analogs are also presented. We immediatly derive universal Gysin formulas for isotropic Schubert bundles from these very constructions.
I construct a correspondence between the Schubert cycles on the variety of complete flags in C^n and some faces of the Gelfand-Zetlin polytope associated with the irreducible representation of SL_n(C) with a strictly dominant highest weight. The construction is based on a geometric presentation of Schubert cells by Bernstein-Gelfand-Gelfand using Demazure modules. The correspondence between the Schubert cycles and faces is then used to interpret the classical Chevalley formula in Schubert calculus in terms of the Gelfand-Zetlin polytopes. The whole picture resembles the picture for toric varie…
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.
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.
We study the toric degeneration of Weyl group translated Schubert divisors of a partial flag variety of Lie type A via Gelfand-Cetlin polytopes. We propose a conjecture that Schubert varieties of appropriate dimensions intersect transversally up to translation by Weyl group elements, and verify it in various cases, including complex Grassmannian Gr(2, n) and complete flag variety Fl_4.
We discuss a relationship between Chern-Schwartz-MacPherson classes for Schubert cells in flag manifolds, Fomin-Kirillov algebra, and the generalized nil-Hecke algebra. We show that nonnegativity conjecture in Fomin-Kirillov algebra implies the nonnegativity of the Chern-Schwartz-MacPherson classes for Schubert cells in flag manifolds for type A. Motivated by this connection, we also prove that the (equivariant) Chern-Schwartz-MacPherson classes for Schubert cells in flag manifolds are certain summations of the structure constants of the equivariant cohomology of the Bott-Samelson varieties. W…
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 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.
The quantum double Schubert polynomials studied by Kirillov and Maeno, and by Ciocan-Fontanine and Fulton, are shown to represent Schubert classes in Kim's presentation of the equivariant quantum cohomology of the flag variety. We define parabolic analogues of quantum double Schubert polynomials, and show that they represent Schubert classes in the equivariant quantum cohomology of partial flag varieties. For complete flags Anderson and Chen have announced a proof with different methods.
We give an algorithm to compute the integer cohomology groups of any real partial flag manifold, by computing the incidence coefficients of the Schubert cells. For even flag manifolds we determine the integer cohomology groups, by proving that any torsion class has order 2 (generalizing a result of Ehresmann). We conjecture this to hold for any real flag manifold. We obtain results concerning which Schubert varieties represent integer cohomology classes, their structure constants and how to express them in terms of characteristic classes. For even flag manifolds and Grassmannians we also descr…
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…
It is known that the closure of an arbitrary K_c-orbit on a flag manifold is expressed as a product of a closed K_c-orbit and a Schubert cell ([M2], [Sp]). We already applied this fact to the duality of orbits on flag manifolds ([GM]). We refine here this result and and give its new applications to the study of domains arising from the duality.
The (small) quantum cohomology ring of a flag manifold F encodes enumerative geometry of rational curves on F. We give a proof of the presentation of the ring and of a quantum Giambelli formula, which is more direct and geometric than the previously known proof. Furthermore, this proof gives a relationship between quantum Schubert polynomials and universal Schubert polynomials, which arise in a degeneracy locus formula of Fulton.
We consider the PBW filtrations over the integers of the irreducible highest weight modules in type A and C. We show that the associated graded modules can be realized as Demazure modules for group schemes of the same type and doubled rank. We deduce that the corresponding degenerate flag varieties are isomorphic to Schubert varieties in any characteristic.
In 2006, Belkale and Kumar define a new product on the cohomology of flag varieties and use this new product to give an improved solution to the eigencone problem for complex reductive groups. In this paper, we give a generalization of the Belkale-Kumar product to the branching Schubert calculus setting. The study of Branching Schubert calculus attempts to understand the induced map on cohomology of an equivariant embedding of flag varieties. The main application of our work is a compact formulation of the solution to the branching eigencone problem.
We describe the integral cohomology rings of the flag manifolds of types B_n, D_n, G_2 and F_4 in terms of their Schubert classes. The main tool is the divided difference operators of Bernstein-Gelfand-Gelfand and Demazure. As an application, we compute the Chow rings of the corresponding complex algebraic groups, recovering thereby the results of R. Marlin.
Let G be a compact connected Lie group with a maximal torus T\subsetG. In the context of Schubert calculus we obtain a canonical presentation for the integral cohomology ring H^{\ast}(G/T) of the complete flag manifold G/T. The result have been applied in [15] to construct the integral cohomology ring H^{\ast}(G) in terms of Schubert classes on G/T, and in [16] to determine the structure of the modp cohomology H^{\ast}(G;F_{p}) as a Hopf algebra over the Steenrod algebra.
We establish the formula for multiplication by the class of a special Schubert variety in the integral cohomology ring of the flag manifold. This formula also describes the multiplication of a Schubert polynomial by either an elementary symmetric polynomial or a complete homogeneous symmetric polynomial. Thus, we generalize the classical Pieri's rule for symmetric polynomials/Grassmann varieties to Schubert polynomials/flag manifolds. Our primary technique is an explicit geometric description of certain intersections of Schubert varieties. This method allows us to compute additional structure …
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 reduce the problem of counting the number of connected components in the intersection of two opposite open Schubert cells in the variety of real complete flags to a purely combinatorial question of counting the number of orbits of a certain intriguing group action in the space of upper triangular matrices with {0,1}-valued entries. The crucial step of our reduction uses the parametrization of the space of real unipotent totally positive upper triangular matrices introduced by Lusztig and Berenstein, Fomin, Zelevinski.
We examine the orbits of the (complex) symplectic group, $Sp_n$, on the flag manifold, $\mathscr{F}\ell(\mathbb{C}^{2n})$, in a very concrete way. We use two approaches: we Gröbner degenerate the orbits to unions of Schubert varieties (for a equations of a particular union of Schubert varieties see \cite{NWunions}) and we find a subset $\mathcal{A}$ of the orbit closures containing the basic elements of the poset of orbit closures under containment, which represent the geometric and combinatorial building blocks for the orbit closures.
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…
Flag domains are open orbits of real semisimple Lie groups in flag manifolds of their complexifications. Certain group theoretically defined compact complex submanifolds, which are regarded as cycles, are of basic importance for their complex geometric and representation theoretic properties. It is known that there are optimal Schubert varieties which intersect the cycles transversally in finitely many points and in particular determine them in homology. Here we give a precise description of these Schubert varieties in terms of certain subsets of the Weyl group and compute their total number f…
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.
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…
Hilbert's 15th problem called for a rigorous foundation of Schubert's calculus, in which a long standing and challenging part is Schubert's problem of characteristics. In the course of securing the foundation of algebraic geometry, Van der Waerden and André Weil attributed the problem to the determination of the intersection theory of flag manifolds. This article surveys the background, content, and resolution of the problem of characteristics. Our main results are a unified formula for the characteristics, and a system description for the intersection rings of flag manifolds. We illustrate th…
We show the equivalence of the Pieri formula for flag manifolds and certain identities among the structure constants, giving new proofs of both the Pieri formula and of these identities. A key step is the association of a symmetric function to a finite poset with labeled Hasse diagram satisfying a symmetry condition. This gives a unified definition of skew Schur functions, Stanley symmetric function, and skew Schubert functions (defined here). We also use algebraic geometry to show the coefficient of a monomial in a Schubert polynomial counts certain chains in the Bruhat order, obtaining a new…
We describe a new approach to the Schubert calculus on complete flag varieties using the volume polynomial associated with Gelfand-Zetlin polytopes. This approach allows us to compute the intersection products of Schubert cycles by intersecting faces of a polytope.
The classical Schubert cells on a flag manifold G/H give a cell decomposition for G/H whose Kronecker duals (known as Schubert classes) form an additive base for the integral cohomology H^{\ast}(G/H). We present a formula that expresses Steenrod mod-p operations on Schubert classes in G/H in terms of Cartan numbers of G.
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…
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…
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…
Under the assumption that the base field k has characteristic 0, we compute the algebraic cobordism fundamental classes of a family of Schubert varieties isomorphic to full and symplectic flag bundles. We use this computation to prove a formula for the push-forward class of the Bott-Samelson resolutions associated to the symplectic flag bundle. We specialise our formula to connective K-theory and the Grothendieck ring of vector bundles, hence obtaining a description for all Schubert classes.
In this article we obtain many results on the multiplicative structure constants of $T$-equivariant Grothendieck ring of the flag variety $G/B$. We do this by lifting the classes of the structure sheaves of Schubert varieties in $K_{T}(G/B)$ to $R(T)\otimes R(T)$, where $R(T)$ denotes the representation ring of the torus $T$. We further apply our results to describe the multiplicative structure constants of $K(X)_{\mathbb Q}$ where $X$ is the wonderful compactification of the adjoint group of $G$, in terms of the structure constants of Schubert varieties in the Grothendieck ring of $G/B$.
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…
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…
