In this paper we classify the multiplicity-free skew characters of the symmetric group. Furthermore we show that the Schubert calculus is equivalent to that of skew characters in the following sense: If we decompose the product of two Schubert classes we get the same as if we decompose a skew character and replace the irreducible characters by Schubert classes of the `inverse' partitions (Theorem 4.2).
We define skew Schubert polynomials to be normal form (polynomial) representatives of certain classes in the cohomology of a flag manifold. We show that this definition extends a recent construction of Schubert polynomials due to Bergeron and Sottile in terms of certain increasing labeled chains in Bruhat order of the symmetric group. These skew Schubert polynomials expand in the basis of Schubert polynomials with nonnegative integer coefficients that are precisely the structure constants of the cohomology of the complex flag variety with respect to its basis of Schubert classes. We rederive t…
We give a nonrecursive, combinatorial characterization of multiplicity-free products of Grassmannian Schubert classes. This answers a question of W. Fulton and extends results of J. Stembridge.
We prove that the number of connected components in the intersection of two open opposite Schubert cells in the variety of complete real n-dimensional flags equals 3*2^{n-1} for n>5.
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…
In a classical-type flag variety, we consider a Schubert variety associated to a vexillary (signed) permutation, and establish a combinatorial formula for the Hilbert-Samuel multiplicity of a point on such a Schubert variety. The formula is expressed in terms of excited Young diagrams, and extends results for Grassmannians due to Krattenthaler, Lakshmibai-Raghavan-Sankaran, and for the maximal isotropic (symplectic and orthogonal) Grassmannians to Ghorpade-Raghavan, Raghavan-Upadhyay, Kreiman, and Ikeda-Naruse. We also provide a new proof of a theorem of Li-Yong in the type A vexillary case. T…
We study an action of the skew divided difference operators on the Schubert polynomials and give an explicit formula for structural constants for the Schubert polynomials in terms of certain weighted paths in the Bruhat order on the symmetric group. We also prove that, under certain assumptions, the skew divided difference operators transform the Schubert polynomials into polynomials with positive integer coefficients.
Some new relations on skew Schur function differences are established both combinatorially using Schützenberger's jeu de taquin, and algebraically using Jacobi-Trudi determinants. These relations lead to the conclusion that certain differences of skew Schur functions are Schur positive. Applying these results to a basis of symmetric functions involving ribbon Schur functions confirms the validity of a Schur positivity conjecture due to McNamara. A further application reveals that certain differences of products of Schubert classes are Schubert positive.
We study Hilbert-Samuel multiplicity for points of Schubert varieties in the complete flag variety, by Groebner degenerations of the Kazhdan-Lusztig ideal. In the covexillary case, we give a positive combinatorial rule for multiplicity by establishing (with a Groebner basis) a reduced and equidimensional limit whose Stanley-Reisner simplicial complex is homeomorphic to a shellable ball or sphere. We show that multiplicity counts the number of facets of this complex. We also obtain a formula for the Hilbert series of the local ring. In particular, our work gives a multiplicity rule for Grassman…
Matrix Schubert varieties are the closures of the orbits of $B\times B$ acting on all $n\times n$ matrices, where $B$ is the group of invertible lower triangular matrices. Extending work of Fulton, Knutson and Miller identified a Gröbner basis for the prime ideals of these varieties. They also showed that the corresponding initial ideals are Stanley-Reisner ideals of shellable simplicial complexes, and derived a related primary decomposition in terms of reduced pipe dreams. These results lead to a geometric proof of the Billey-Jockusch-Stanley formula for a Schubert polynomial, among many othe…
We provide a non-recursive, combinatorial classification of multiplicity-free skew Schur polynomials. These polynomials are $GL_n$, and $SL_n$, characters of the skew Schur modules. Our result extends work of H. Thomas--A. Yong, and C. Gutschwager, in which they classify the multiplicity-free skew Schur functions.
In this paper we give an easy combinatorial description for the base partition B of a skew character [A], which is the intersection of all partitions alpha whose corresponding character [alpha] appears in [A]. This we use to construct the cover partition C for the ordinary outer product as well as for the Schubert product of two characters and for some skew characters, here the cover partition is the union of all partitions whose corresponding character appears in the product or in the skew character. This gives us also the Durfee size for arbitrary Schubert products.
We describe the torus-equivariant cohomology ring of isotropic Grassmannians by using a localization map to the torus fixed points. We present two types of formulas for equivariant Schubert classes of these homogeneous spaces. The first formula involves combinatorial objects which we call ``excited Young diagrams'' and the second one is written in terms of factorial Schur $Q$- or $P$-functions. As an application, we give a Giambelli-type formula for the equivariant Schubert classes. We also give combinatorial and Pfaffian formulas for the multiplicity of a singular point in a Schubert variety.
We give an explicit combinatorial description of the multiplicity as well as the Hilbert function of the tangent cone at any point on a Schubert variety in the symplectic Grassmannian.
It is known that the Schur expansion of a skew Schur function runs over the interval of partitions, equipped with dominance order, defined by the least and the most dominant Littlewood-Richardson filling of the skew shape. We characterise skew Schur functions (and therefore the product of two Schur functions) which are multiplicity-free and the resulting Schur expansion runs over the whole interval of partitions, i.e. skew Schur functions having Littlewood-Richardson coefficients always equal to $1$ over the full interval.
Schubert polynomials were discovered by A. Lascoux and M. Schützenberger in the study of cohomology rings of flag manifolds in 1980's. These polynomials generalize Schur polynomials, and form a linear basis of multivariate polynomials. In 2003, Lenart and Sottile introduced skew Schubert polynomials, which generalize skew Schur polynomials, and expand in the Schubert basis with the generalized Littlewood-Richardson coefficients. In this paper we initiate the study of these two families of polynomials from the perspective of computational complexity theory. We first observe that skew Schubert p…
In this paper we show that two skew diagrams lambda/mu and alpha/beta can represent the same multiplicity free skew character [lambda/mu]=[alpha/beta] only in the the trivial cases when lambda/mu and alpha/beta are the same up to translation or rotation or if lambda=alpha is a staircase partition lambda=(l,l-1,...,2,1) and lambda/mu and alpha/beta are conjugate of each other.
We classify the $Q$-multiplicity-free skew Schur $Q$-functions. Towards this result, we also provide new relations between the shifted Littlewood-Richardson coefficients.
We answer some questions related to multiplicity formulas by Rosenthal and Zelevinsky and by Lakshmibai and Weyman for points on Schubert varieties in Grassmannians. In particular, we give combinatorial interpretations in terms of nonintersecting lattice paths of these formulas, which makes the equality of the two formulas immediately obvious. Furthermore we provide an alternative determinantal formula for these multiplicities, and we show that they count semistandard tableaux of unusual shapes.
A solution is given to the following problem: how to compute the multiplicity, or more generally the Hilbert function, at a point on a Schubert variety in an orthogonal Grassmannian. Standard monomial theory is applied to translate the problem from geometry to combinatorics. The solution of the resulting combinatorial problem forms the bulk of the paper. This approach has been followed earlier to solve the same problem for the Grassmannian and the symplectic Grassmannian. As an application, we present an interpretation of the multiplicity as the number of non-intersecting lattice paths of a ce…
We establish connections between: the maximum likelihood degree (ML-degree) for linear concentration models, the algebraic degree of semidefinite programming (SDP), and Schubert calculus for complete quadrics. We prove a conjecture by Sturmfels and Uhler on the polynomiality of the ML-degree. We also prove a conjecture by Nie, Ranestad and Sturmfels providing an explicit formula for the degree of SDP. The interactions between the three fields shed new light on the asymptotic behaviour of enumerative invariants for the variety of complete quadrics. We also extend these results to spaces of gene…
In this paper we classify all Schur functions and skew Schur functions that are multiplicity free when expanded in the basis of fundamental quasisymmetric functions, termed F-multiplicity free. Combinatorially, this is equivalent to classifying all skew shapes whose standard Young tableaux have distinct descent sets. We then generalize our setting, and classify all F-multiplicity free quasisymmetric Schur functions with one or two terms in the expansion, or one or two parts in the indexing composition. This identifies composition shapes such that all standard composition tableaux of that shape…
The hive model is a combinatorial device that may be used to determine Littlewood-Richardson coefficients and study their properties. It represents an alternative to the use of the Littlewood-Richardson rule. Here properties of hives are used to determine all possible multiplicity-free Schur function products and skew Schur function expansions. This confirms the results of Stembridge, Gutschwager, and Thomas and Yong, and sheds light on the combinatorial origin of the conditions for being multiplicity-free, as well as illustrating some of the key features and power of the hive model.
We consider the loci of invertible linear maps $f : \mathbb{C}^n \to {(\mathbb{C}^n)}^*$ together with pairs of flags $(E_\bullet, F_\bullet)$ in $\mathbb{C}^n$ such that the various restrictions $f : F_j \to E_i^*$ have specified ranks. Identifying an invertible linear map with its graph viewed as a point in a Grassmannian, we show that the closures of these loci have cohomology classes represented by the back-stable Schubert polynomials of Lam, Lee, and Shimozono. As a special case, we recover the result of Knutson, Lam, and Speyer that Stanley symmetric functions represent the classes of gr…
Involution Schubert polynomials represent cohomology classes of $K$-orbit closures in the complete flag variety, where $K$ is the orthogonal or symplectic group. We show they also represent $T$-equivariant cohomology classes of subvarieties defined by upper-left rank conditions in the spaces of symmetric or skew-symmetric matrices. This geometry implies that these polynomials are positive combinations of monomials in the variables $x_i + x_j$, and we give explicit formulas of this kind as sums over new objects called involution pipe dreams. Our formulas are analogues of the Billey-Jockusch-Sta…
Schubert polynomials $\mathfrak{S}_w$ are polynomial representatives for cohomology classes of Schubert varieties in a complete flag variety, while Grothendieck polynomials $\mathfrak{G}_w$ are analogous representatives for the $K$-theory classes of the structure sheaves of Schubert varieties. In the special case that $\mathfrak{S}_w$ is a multiplicity-free sum of monomials, K. Mészáros, L. Setiabrata, and A. St. Dizier conjectured that $\mathfrak{G}_w$ can be easily computed from $\mathfrak{S}_w$ via Möbius inversion on a certain poset. We prove this conjecture.
We provide a classification of multiplicity-free inner tensor products of irreducible characters of symmetric groups, thus confirming a conjecture of Bessenrodt. Concurrently, we classify all multiplicity-free inner tensor products of skew characters of the symmetric groups. We also provide formulae for calculating the decomposition of these tensor products.
Nakada's colored hook formula is a vast generalization of many important formulae in combinatorics, such as the classical hook length formula and the Peterson's formula for the number of reduced expressions of minuscule Weyl group elements. In this paper, we utilize cohomological properties of Segre-MacPherson classes of Schubert cells and varieties to prove a generalization of a cohomological version of Nakada's formula, in terms of smoothness properties of Schubert varieties. A key ingredient in the proof is the study of a decorated version of the Bruhat graph. Summing over weighted paths of…
Schubert polynomials are refined by the key polynomials of Lascoux-Schützenberger, which in turn are refined by the fundamental slide polynomials of Assaf-Searles. In this paper we determine which fundamental slide polynomial refinements of key polynomials, indexed by strong compositions, are multiplicity free. We also give a recursive algorithm to determine all terms in the fundamental slide polynomial refinement of a key polynomial indexed by a strong composition. From here, we apply our results to begin to classify which fundamental slide polynomial refinements, indexed by weak compositions…
The complex orthogonal and symplectic groups both act on the complete flag variety with finitely many orbits. We study two families of polynomials introduced by Wyser and Yong representing the $K$-theory classes of the closures of these orbits. Our polynomials are analogous to the Grothendieck polynomials representing $K$-classes of Schubert varieties, and we show that like Grothendieck polynomials, they are uniquely characterized among all polynomials representing the relevant classes by a certain stability property. We show that the same polynomials represent the equivariant $K$-classes of s…
