This is an expository paper which has two parts. In the first part, we study quiver varieties of affine $A$-type from a combinatorial point of view. We present a combinatorial method for obtaining a closed formula for the generating function of Poincaré polynomials of quiver varieties in rank 1 cases. Our main tools are cores and quotients of Young diagrams. In the second part, we give a brief survey of instanton counting in physics, where quiver varieties appear as moduli spaces of instantons, focusing on its combinatorial aspects.
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, …
We present a review on the recently discovered link between the Lie theory,the theory of quiver Grassmannians, and various degenerations of flag varieties. Our starting point is the induced Poincaré--Birkhoff--Witt filtration on the highest weight representations and the corresponding PBW degenerate flag varieties.
Quiver Grassmannians are varieties parametrizing subrepresentations of a quiver representation. It is observed that certain quiver Grassmannians for type A quivers are isomorphic to the degenerate flag varieties investigated earlier by the second named author. This leads to the consideration of a class of Grassmannians of subrepresentations of the direct sum of a projective and an injective representation of a Dynkin quiver. It is proven that these are (typically singular) irreducible normal local complete intersection varieties, which admit a group action with finitely many orbits, and a cell…
Seiberg duality conjecture asserts that the Gromov-Witten theories (Gauged Linear Sigma Models) of two quiver varieties related by quiver mutations are equal via variable change. In this work, we prove this conjecture for $A_n$ type quiver varieties.
We introduce a framework of translation quiver varieties which includes Nakajima quiver varieties as well as their graded and cyclic versions. An important feature of translation quiver varieties is that the sets of their fixed points under toric actions can be again realized as translation quiver varieties. This allows one to simplify quiver varieties in several steps. We prove that translation quiver varieties are smooth, pure and have Tate motivic classes. We also describe an algorithm to compute those motivic classes.
We study smoothness of toric quiver varieties. When a quiver $Q$ is defined with the identity dimension vector, the corresponding quiver variety is also a toric variety. So it has both fan representation and quiver representation. We work only on quivers with canonical weight and we classify smooth such toric quiver varieties. We show that a variety corresponding to a quiver with the identity dimension vector and the canonical weight is smooth if and only if it is a product of projective spaces or their blowups.
Given a collection of line bundles on a complete toric variety, the Macaulay2 package QuiversToricVarieties contains functions to construct its quiver of sections and check whether the collection is strong exceptional. It contains a database of full strong exceptional collections of line bundles for smooth Fano toric varieties of dimension less than or equal to 4.
We introduce a new class of algebraic varieties which we call frieze varieties. Each frieze variety is determined by an acyclic quiver. The frieze variety is defined in an elementary recursive way by constructing a set of points in affine space. From a more conceptual viewpoint, the coordinates of these points are specializations of cluster variables in the cluster algebra associated to the quiver. We give a new characterization of the finite--tame--wild trichotomy for acyclic quivers in terms of their frieze varieties. We show that an acyclic quiver is representation finite, tame, or wild, re…
Inspired by recent work of Cerulli-Feigin-Reineke on desingularizations of quiver Grassmannians of representations of Dynkin quivers, we obtain desingularizations in considerably more general situations and in particular for Grassmannians of modules over iterated tilted algebras of Dynkin type. Our desingularization map is constructed from Nakajima's desingularization map for graded quiver varieties.
We relate the representations of the rational Cherednik algebras associated with the complex reflection group G(m,1,n) to sheaves on Nakajima quiver varieties associated with extended Dynkin gaphs via a Z-algebra construction. As the parameters defining the Cherednik algebra vary, the stability conditions defining the quiver variety change. We interpret the ordering on category O geometrically using this relationship; we also relate the geometry to the a-function for Hecke algebras with unequal parameters.
We study finite dimensional representations of the quantum affine algebra, using geometry of quiver varieties introduced by the author. As an application, we obtain character formulas expressed in terms of intersection cohomologies of quiver varieties.
In this paper, we introduce generalized quiver varieties which include as special cases classical and cyclic quiver varieties. The geometry of generalized quiver varieties is governed by a finitely generated algebra P: the algebra P is self-injective if the quiver Q is of Dynkin type, and coincides with the preprojective algebra in the case of classical quiver varieties. We show that in the Dynkin case the strata of generalized quiver varieties are in bijection with the isomorphism classes of objects in proj P, and that their degeneration order coincides with the Jensen-Su-Zimmermann's degener…
In our joint paper with W. Fulton (math.AG/9804041) we prove a formula for the cohomology class of a quiver variety. This formula is general enough to give new expressions for all known types of Schubert polynomials. In the present paper we discuss the relationship between this formula and Stanley symmetric functions. We show that the coefficients obtained when a Stanley symmetric function is expressed in the basis of Schur functions are special cases of a class of generalized Littlewood-Richardson coefficients appearing in the formula for quiver varieties. We also prove that Fulton's universa…
We show that Gorenstein singularities that are cones over singular Fano varieties provided by so-called flag quivers are smoothable in codimension three. Moreover, we give a precise characterization about the smoothability in codimension three of the Fano variety itself.
We unify aspects of the equivariant geometry of type $D$ quiver representation varieties, double Grassmannians, and symmetric varieties $GL(a+b)/GL(a)\times GL(b)$; in particular we translate results about singularities of orbit closures, combinatorics of orbit closure containment, and torus equivariant $K$-theory between these three families. These results are all obtained from our generalization of a construction of Zelevinsky for type $A$ quivers to the type $D$ setting. More precisely, we give explicit embeddings with nice properties of homogeneous fiber bundles over type $D$ quiver repres…
In this paper we define an action of the Weyl group on the quiver varieties $M_{m,\grl}(d,v)$ with generic $(m,\grl)$. To do it we describe a set of generators of the projective ring of a quiver variety. We also prove connectness for the smooth quiver variety $M(d,v)$ and normality for $M_0(d,v)$ in the case of a quiver of finite type and $d-v$ a regular weight.
We study algebraic actions of finite groups of quiver automorphisms on moduli spaces of quiver representations. We decompose the fixed loci using group cohomology and we give a modular interpretation of each component. As an application, we construct branes in hyperkaehler quiver varieties, as fixed loci of such actions.
We construct Nakajima's quiver varieties of type A in terms of conjugacy classes of matrices and (non-Slodowy's) transverse slices naturally arising from affine Grassmannians. In full generality quiver varieties are embedded into Beilinson-Drinfeld Grassmannians of type A. Our construction provides a compactification of Nakajima's quiver varieties and a decomposition of an affine Grassmannian into a disjoint union of quiver varieties. As an application we provide a geometric version of skew and symmetric $(GL(m), GL(n))$ duality.
We construct geometric categorical Lie algebra actions on the derived category of coherent sheaves on Nakajima quiver varieties. These actions categorify Nakajima's construction of Kac-Moody algebra representations on the K-theory of quiver varieties. We define an induced affine braid group action on these derived categories.
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 construct Nakajima's quiver varieties of type A in terms of affine Grassmannians of type A. This gives a compactification of quiver varieties and a decomposition of affine Grassmannians into a disjoint union of quiver varieties. Consequently, singularities of quiver varieties, nilpotent orbits and affine Grassmannians are the same in type A. The construction also provides a geometric framework for skew $(GL(m), GL(n))$ duality and identifies the natural basis of weight spaces in Nakajima's construction with the natural basis of multiplicity spaces in tensor products which arises from affine…
In this paper we classify all the quivers and corresponding dimension vectors having a smooth space of semisimple representation classes. The result is that these quiver settings can be reduced via some specific reduction steps to 3 simple types.
For algebraic varieties defined by hyperkahler or, more generally, algebraic symplectic reduction, it is a long-standing question whether the "hyperkahler Kirwan map" on cohomology is surjective. We resolve this question in the affirmative for Nakajima quiver varieties. We also establish similar results for other cohomology theories and for the derived category. Our proofs use only classical topological and geometric arguments.
Given a quiver, Nakajima introduced the quiver variety and the Hecke correspondence, which is a closed subvariety of Cartesian products of quiver varieties. In this paper, we consider two nested quiver varieties as fiber products of Hecke correspondences along natural projections. After blowing up the diagonal, we prove that they are isomorphic to a quadruple moduli space which Neguţ observed for the Jordan quiver. The main ingredient is Jiang's derived projectivization theory and Hekking's derived blow-up theory, while we obtain the local model when both the two derived schemes are quasi-smoo…
We prove, that Hausel's formula for the number of rational points of a Nakajima quiver variety over a finite field also holds in a suitable localization of the Grothendieck ring of varieties. In order to generalize the arithmetic harmonic analysis in his proof we use Grothendieck rings with exponentials as introduced by Cluckers-Loeser and Hrushovski-Kazhdan.
We prove a formula for the structure sheaf of a quiver variety in the Grothendieck ring of its embedding variety. This formula generalizes and gives new expressions for Grothendieck polynomials. We furthermore conjecture that the coefficients in our formula have signs which alternate with degree. The proof of our formula involves $K$-theoretic generalizations of several useful cohomological tools, including the Thom-Porteous formula, the Jacobi-Trudi formula, and a Gysin formula of Pragacz.
Toric quiver varieties (moduli spaces of quiver representations) are studied. Given a quiver and a weight there is an associated quasiprojective toric variety together with a canonical embedding into projective space. It is shown that for a quiver with no oriented cycles the homogeneous ideal of this embedded projective variety is generated by elements of degree at most $3$. In each fixed dimension $d$ up to isomorphism there are only finitely many $d$-dimensional toric quiver varieties. A procedure for their classification is outlined.
In our joint paper with W. Fulton (math.AG/9804041) we prove a formula for the cohomology class of a quiver variety. This formula involves a new class of generalized Littlewood-Richardson coefficients, all of which surprisingly seem to be non-negative. We conjecture that each of these coefficients count the number of sequences of semistandard Young tableaux which satisfy certain conditions. In this paper I give a proof of this conjecture in the special case where the quiver variety can be described by at most four vector bundles. I also prove that the general conjecture follows from a simple c…
We prove that certain quiver varieties are irreducible and therefore are isomorphic to Hilbert schemes of points of the total spaces of the bundles $\mathcal O_{\mathbb P^1}(-n)$ for $n \ge 1$.
We describe the relationship between two spaces associated to a quiver with potential. The first is a complex manifold parametrizing Bridgeland stability conditions on a triangulated category, and the second is a cluster variety with a natural Poisson structure. For quivers of type $A$, we construct a local biholomorphism from the space of stability conditions to the cluster variety. The existence of this map follows from results of Sibuya in the classical theory of ordinary differential equations.
We study preprojective algebras of graphs and their relationship to module categories over representations of quantum SL(2). As an application, ADE quiver varieties of Nakajima are shown to be subvarieties of the variety of representations of a certain associative algebra introduced by Lusztig.
We define quantum equivariant K-theory of Nakajima quiver varieties. We discuss type A in detail as well as its connections with quantum XXZ spin chains and trigonometric Ruijsenaars-Schneider models. Finally we study a limit which produces a K-theoretic version of results of Givental and Kim, connecting quantum geometry of flag varieties and Toda lattice.
We study connections between the topology of generic character varieties of fundamental groups of punctured Riemann surfaces, Macdonald polynomials, quiver representations, Hilbert schemes on surfaces, modular forms and multiplicities in tensor products of irreducible characters of finite general linear groups.
We study the algebraic symplectic geometry of multiplicative quiver varieties, which are moduli spaces of representations of certain quiver algebras, introduced by Crawley-Boevey and Shaw, called multiplicative preprojective algebras. They are multiplicative analogues of Nakajima quiver varieties. They include character varieties of (open) Riemann surfaces fixing conjugacy class closures of the monodromies around punctures, when the quiver is "crab-shaped". We prove that, under suitable hypotheses on the dimension vector of the representations, or the conjugacy classes of monodromies in the ch…
In a previous paper the authors have attached to each Dynkin quiver an associative algebra. The definition is categorical and the algebra is used to construct desingularizations of arbitrary quiver Grassmannians. In the present paper we prove that this algebra is isomorphic to an algebra constructed by Hernandez-Leclerc defined combinatorially and used to describe certain graded Nakajima quiver varieties. This approach is used to get an explicit realization of the orbit closures of representations of Dynkin quivers as affine quotients.
We consider the moduli spaces of quasimaps to zero-dimensional $A_{\infty}$ Nakajima quiver varieties. An explicit combinatorial formula for the equivariant Euler characteristic of these moduli spaces is obtained and applications to symplectic duality are discussed.
Quivers play an important role in the representation theory of algebras, with a key ingredient being the path algebra and the preprojective algebra. Quiver grassmannians are varieties of submodules of a fixed module of the path or preprojective algebra. In the current paper, we study these objects in detail. We show that the quiver grassmannians corresponding to submodules of certain injective modules are homeomorphic to the lagrangian quiver varieties of Nakajima which have been well studied in the context of geometric representation theory. We then refine this result by finding quiver grassm…
To a quiver $Q$ and choices of nonzero scalars $q_i$, non-negative integers $α_i$, and integers $θ_i$ labeling each vertex $i$, Crawley-Boevey--Shaw associate a "multiplicative quiver variety" $\mathcal{M}_θ^q(α)$, a trigonometric analogue of the Nakajima quiver variety associated to $Q$, $α$, and $θ$. We prove that the pure cohomology, in the Hodge-theoretic sense, of the stable locus $\mathcal{M}_θ^q(α)^s$ is generated as a $\mathbb{Q}$-algebra by the tautological characteristic classes. In particular, the pure cohomology of genus $g$ twisted character varieties of $GL_n$ is generated by tau…
We review the definition of quiver varieties and their relation to representation theory of Kac-Moody Lie algebras. Target readers are ring and representation theorists. We emphasize important roles of first extension groups of the preprojective algebra associated with a quiver.
An affine Lie algebra acts on cohomology groups of quiver varieties of affine type. A Heisenberg algebra acts on cohomology groups of Hilbert schemes of points on a minimal resolution of a Kleinian singularity. We show that in the case of type $A$ the former is obtained by Frenkel-Kac construction from the latter.
For a quiver $Q$, we take $\mathcal{M}$ an associated toric Nakajima quiver variety and $Γ$ the underlying graph. In this article, we give a direct relation between a specialisation of the Tutte polynomial of $Γ$, the Kac polynomial of $Q$ and the Poincaré polynomial of $\mathcal{M}$. We do this by giving a cell decomposition of $\mathcal{M}$ indexed by spanning trees of $Γ$ and `geometrising' the deletion and contraction operators on graphs. These relations have been previously established by Sturmfels-Hausel and (Crawley-Boovey)-Van den Bergh, however the methods here are more hands-on.
We show how equivariant volumes of tensor product quiver varieties of type A are given by matrix elements of vertex operators of centrally extended doubles of Yangians, and how they satisfy in some cases the rational, level 1, quantum Knizhnik--Zamolodchikov equation.
We prove a generating function formula for the Betti numbers of Nakajima quiver varieties. We prove that it is a q-deformation of the Weyl-Kac character formula. In particular this implies that the constant term of the polynomial counting the number of absolutely indecomposable representations of a quiver equals the multiplicity of a a certain weight in the corresponding Kac-Moody algebra, which was conjectured by Kac in 1982.
We review how log Gromov--Witten invariants of toric varieties can be used to express quiver Donaldson--Thomas invariants in terms of the simpler attractor Donaldson--Thomas invariants. This is an exposition of joint work with Pierrick Bousseau.