Given two Schubert classes $σ_λ$ and $σ_μ$ in the quantum cohomology of a Grassmannian, we construct a partition $ν$, depending on $λ$ and $μ$, such that $σ_ν$ appears with coefficient 1 in the lowest (or highest) degree part of the quantum product $σ_λ\starσ_μ$. To do this, we show that for any two partitions $λ$ and $μ$, contained in a $k$-by-$(n-k)$ rectangle and such that the 180-degree rotation of one does not overlap the other, there is a third partition $ν$, also contained in the rectangle, such that the Littlewood-Richardson number $c_{λμ}^ν$ is 1.
We investigate double transitivity of Galois groups in the classical Schubert calculus on Grassmannians. We show that all Schubert problems on Grassmannians of 2- and 3-planes have doubly transitive Galois groups, as do all Schubert problems involving only special Schubert conditions. We use these results to give a new proof that Schubert problems on Grassmannians of 2-planes have Galois groups that contain the alternating group. We also investigate the Galois group of every Schubert problem on Gr(4,8), finding that each Galois group either contains the alternating group or is an imprimitive p…
We give positive formulas for the restriction of a Schubert Class to a T-fixed point in the equivariant K-theory and equivariant cohomology of the Lagrangian Grassmannian. Our formulas rely on a result of Ghorpade-Raghavan, which gives an equivariant Grobner degeneration of a Schubert variety in the neighborhood of a T-fixed point of the Lagrangian Grassmannian.
We give positive formulas for the restriction of a Schubert Class to a T-fixed point in the equivariant K-theory and equivariant cohomology of the Grassmannian. Our formulas rely on a result of Kodiyalam-Raghavan and Kreiman-Lakshmibai, which gives an equivariant Grobner degeneration of a Schubert variety in the neighborhood of a T-fixed point of the Grassmannian.
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…
Confirming a conjecture of Mark Shimozono, we identify polynomial representatives for the Schubert classes of the affine Grassmannian as the k-Schur functions in homology and affine Schur functions in cohomology. Our results rely on Kostant and Kumar's nilHecke ring, work of Peterson on the homology of based loops on a compact group, and earlier work of ours on non-commutative k-Schur functions.
We study the Schubert calculus of the affine Grassmannian Gr of the symplectic group. The integral homology and cohomology rings of Gr are identified with dual Hopf algebras of symmetric functions, defined in terms of Schur's P and Q-functions. An explicit combinatorial description is obtained for the Schubert basis of the cohomology of Gr, and this is extended to a definition of the affine type C Stanley symmetric functions. A homology Pieri rule is also given for the product of a special Schubert class with an arbitrary one.
We introduce two families of symmetric functions with an extra parameter t that specialize to Schubert representatives for cohomology and homology of the affine Grassmannian when t = 1. The families are defined by a statistic on combinatorial objects associated to the type-A affine Weyl group and their transition matrix with Hall-Littlewood polynomials is t-positive. We conjecture that one family is the set of k-atoms.
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.
We construct the Schubert basis of the torus-equivariant K-homology of the affine Grassmannian of a simple algebraic group G, using the K-theoretic NilHecke ring of Kostant and Kumar. This is the K-theoretic analogue of a construction of Peterson in equivariant homology. For the case G = SL_n, the K-homology of the affine Grassmannian is identified with a sub-Hopf algebra of the ring of symmetric functions. The Schubert basis is represented by inhomogeneous symmetric functions, called K-k-Schur functions, whose highest degree term is a k-Schur function. The dual basis in K-cohomology is given …
Two Schubert problems on possibly different Grassmannians may be composed to obtain a Schubert problem on a larger Grassmannian whose number of solutions is the product of the numbers of the original problems. This generalizes a construction discovered while classifying Schubert problems on the Grassmannian of 4-planes in C^9 with imprimitive Galois groups. We give an algebraic proof of the product formula. In a number of cases, we show that the Galois group of the composed Schubert problem is a subgroup of a wreath product of the Galois groups of the original problems, and is therefore imprim…
We develop a combinatorial rule to compute the real geometry of type B Schubert curves $S(λ_\bullet)$ in the orthogonal Grassmannian $\mathrm{OG}_n$, which are one-dimensional Schubert problems defined with respect to orthogonal flags osculating the rational normal curve. Our results are natural analogs of results previously known only in type A. First, using the type B Wronski map, we show that the real locus of the Schubert curve has a natural covering map to $\mathbb{RP}^1$, with monodromy operator $ω$ defined as the commutator of jeu de taquin rectification and promotion on skew shifted se…
We recall the root game, introduced in an earlier paper, which gives a fairly powerful sufficient condition for non-vanishing of Schubert calculus on a generalised flag manifold G/B. We show that it gives a necessary and sufficient rule for non-vanishing of Schubert calculus on Grassmannians. In particular, a Littlewood-Richardson number is non-zero if and only if it is possible to win the corresponding root game. More generally, the rule can be used to determine whether or not a product of several Schubert classes on Gr_l(n) is non-zero in a manifestly symmetric way. Finally, we give a geomet…
Let $L$ be a Levi subgroup of $GL_N$ which acts by left multiplication on a Schubert variety $X(w)$ in the Grassmannian $G_{d,N}$. We say that $X(w)$ is a spherical Schubert variety if $X(w)$ is a spherical variety for the action of $L$. In earlier work we provide a combinatorial description of the decomposition of the homogeneous coordinate ring of $X(w)$ into irreducible $L$-modules for the induced action of $L$. In this work we classify those decompositions into irreducible $L$-modules that are multiplicity-free. This is then applied towards giving a complete classification of the spherical…
We study combinatorial aspects of the Schubert calculus of the affine Grassmannian Gr associated with SL(n,C). Our main results are: 1) Pieri rules for the Schubert bases of H^*(Gr) and H_*(Gr), which expresses the product of a special Schubert class and an arbitrary Schubert class in terms of Schubert classes. 2) A new combinatorial definition for k-Schur functions, which represent the Schubert basis of H_*(Gr). 3) A combinatorial interpretation of the pairing between homology and cohomology of the affine Grassmannian. These results are obtained by interpreting the Schubert bases of Gr combin…
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.
Let $G=SO(8n+4,\mathbb{C})$ ($n\ge 1$). Let $B$ be a Borel subgroup of $G$ containing a maximal torus $T$ of $G.$ Let $P (\supset B)$ denote the maximal parabolic subgroup of $G$ corresponding to the simple root $α_{4n+2}$. In this article, we prove projective normality of the GIT quotients of certain Schubert varieties in the orthogonal Grassmannian $G/P$ with respect to the descent of a suitable $T$-linearized very ample line bundle.
We compute the initial ideals, with respect to certain conveniently chosen term orders, of ideals of tangent cones at torus fixed points to Schubert varieties in orthogonal Grassmannians. The initial ideals turn out to be square-free monomial ideals and therefore Stanley-Reisner face rings of simplicial complexes. We describe these complexes. The maximal faces of these complexes encode certain sets of non-intersecting lattice paths.
In this tutorial, we provide an overview of many of the established combinatorial and algebraic tools of Schubert calculus, the modern area of enumerative geometry that encapsulates a wide variety of topics involving intersections of linear spaces. It is intended as a guide for readers with a combinatorial bent to understand and appreciate the geometric and topological aspects of Schubert calculus, and conversely for geometric-minded readers to gain familiarity with the relevant combinatorial tools in this area. We lead the reader through a tour of three variations on a theme: Grassmannians, f…
Let $LG_n$ denote the Lagrangian Grassmannian parametrizing maximal isotropic (Lagrangian) subspaces of a fixed symplectic vector space of dimension $2n.$ For each strict partition $λ=(λ_1,...,λ_k)$ with $λ_1\leq n$ there is a Schubert variety $X(λ).$ Let $T$ denote a maximal torus of the symplectic group acting on $LG_n.$ Consider the $T$-equivariant cohomology of $LG_n$ and the $T$-equivariant fundamental class $σ(λ)$ of $X(λ).$ The main result of the present paper is an explicit formula for the restriction of the class $σ(λ)$ to any torus fixed point. The formula is written in terms of fact…
We describe a relationship between work of Laksov, Gatto, and their collaborators on realizations of (generalized) Schubert calculus of Grassmannians, and the geometric Satake correspondence of Lusztig, Ginzburg, and Mirković and Vilonen. Along the way we obtain new proofs of equivariant Giambelli formulas for the ordinary and orthogonal Grassmannians, as well as a simple derivation of the "rim-hook" rule for computing in the equivariant quantum cohomology of the Grassmannian.
We prove Pieri formulas for the multiplication with special Schubert classes in the K-theory of all cominuscule Grassmannians. For Grassmannians of type A this gives a new proof of a formula of Lenart. Our formula is new for Lagrangian Grassmannians, and for orthogonal Grassmannians it proves a special case of a conjectural Littlewood-Richardson rule of Thomas and Yong. Recent work of Thomas and Yong and of E. Clifford has shown that the full Littlewood-Richardson rule for orthogonal Grassmannians follows from the Pieri case proved here. We describe the K-theoretic Pieri coefficients both as i…
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…
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…
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…
The odd symplectic Grassmannian $\mathrm{IG}:=\mathrm{IG}(k, 2n+1)$ parametrizes $k$ dimensional subspaces of $\mathbb{C}^{2n+1}$ which are isotropic with respect to a general (necessarily degenerate) symplectic form. The odd symplectic group acts on $\mathrm{IG}$ with two orbits, and $\mathrm{IG}$ is itself a smooth Schubert variety in the submaximal isotropic Grassmannian $\mathrm{IG}(k, 2n+2)$. We use the technique of curve neighborhoods to prove a Chevalley formula in the equivariant quantum cohomology of $\mathrm{IG}$, i.e. a formula to multiply a Schubert class by the Schubert divisor cl…
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…
Let V be a 2n-dimensional complex symplectic space. Let G' be the Lagrangian Grassmannian of maximal isotropic subspaces of V embedded via the inclusion i into the Grassmannian G of all n-dimensional subspaces of V. We discuss the restriction via i* of a Schubert class from H(G), as an integral linear combination of Schubert classes in H(G'). Among the main tools we mention Stembridge's results on shifted tableaux. Using these results and a generalization of the Macdonald-You identity from an earlier author's paper, we establish several related algebro-geometric formulas.
We prove that if X is a Grassmannian of type A, then the Schubert basis of the (small) quantum cohomology ring QH(X) is the only homogeneous deformation of the Schubert basis of the ordinary cohomology ring of X that multiplies with non-negative structure constants. This implies that the (three point, genus zero) Gromov-Witten invariants of X are uniquely determined by Witten's presentation of QH(X) and the fact that they are non-negative. We conjecture that the same is true for any flag variety X = G/P of simply laced Lie type. For the variety GL(n)/B of complete flags, this conjecture is equ…
The direct sum map Gr(a,n) x Gr(b,m) -> Gr(a+b,m+n) on Grassmannians induces a K-theory pullback that defines the splitting coefficients. We geometrically explain an identity from [Buch '02] between the splitting coefficients and the Schubert structure constants for products of Schubert structure sheaves. This is related to the topic of product and splitting coefficients for Schubert boundary ideal sheaves. Our main results extend jeu de taquin for increasing tableaux [Thomas-Yong '09] by proving transparent analogues of [Schützenberger '77]'s fundamental theorems on well-definedness of rectif…
Let $\mathbb{F}$ be any field. The Grassmannian $\mathrm{Gr}(m,n)$ is the set of $m$-dimensional subspaces in $\mathbb{F}^n$, and the general linear group $\mathrm{GL}_n(\mathbb{F})$ acts transitively on it. The Schubert cells of $\mathrm{Gr}(m,n)$ are the orbits of the Borel subgroup $\mathcal{B} \subset \mathrm{GL}_n(\mathbb{F})$ on $\mathrm{Gr}(m,n)$. We consider the association scheme on each Schubert cell defined by the $\mathcal{B}$-action and show it is symmetric and it is the generalized wreath product of one-class association schemes, which was introduced by R. A. Bailey [European Jou…
Let G be a simple and simply-connected complex algebraic group, P \subset G a parabolic subgroup. We prove an unpublished result of D. Peterson which states that the quantum cohomology QH^*(G/P) of a flag variety is, up to localization, a quotient of the homology H_*(Gr_G) of the affine Grassmannian \Gr_G of G. As a consequence, all three-point genus zero Gromov-Witten invariants of $G/P$ are identified with homology Schubert structure constants of H_*(Gr_G), establishing the equivalence of the quantum and homology affine Schubert calculi. For the case G = B, we use the Mihalcea's equivariant …
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 study the combinatorics of Gröbner degenerations of Grassmannians and the Schubert varieties inside them. We provide a family of binomial ideals whose combinatorics is governed by tableaux induced by matching fields in the sense of Sturmfels and Zelevinsky. We prove that these ideals are all quadratically generated and they yield a SAGBI basis of the Plücker algebra. This leads to a new family of toric degenerations of Grassmannians. Moreover, we apply our results to construct a family of Gröbner degenerations of Schubert varieties inside Grassmannians. We provide a complete characterizatio…
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.
This chapter concerns edge labeled Young tableaux, introduced by H. Thomas and the third author. It is used to model equivariant Schubert calculus of Grassmannians. We survey results, problems, conjectures, together with their influences from combinatorics, algebraic and symplectic geometry, linear algebra, and computational complexity. We report on a new shifted analogue of edge labeled tableaux. Conjecturally, this gives a Littlewood-Richardson rule for the structure constants of the D. Anderson-W. Fulton ring, which is related to the equivariant cohomology of isotropic Grassmannians.
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 consider a certain class of Schubert varieties of the affine Grassmannian of type A. By embedding a Schubert variety into a finite-dimensional Grassmannian, we construct an explicit basis of sections of the basic line bundle by restricting certain Plücker co-ordinates. As a consequence, we write an explicit set of generators for the degree-one part of the ideal of the finite-dimensional embedding. This in turn gives a set of generators for the degree-one part of the ideal defining the affine Grassmannian inside the infinite Grassmannian which we conjecture to be a complete set of ideal gene…
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.
Given a Schubert class on $Gr(k,V)$ where $V$ is a symplectic vector space of dimension $2n$, we consider its restriction to the symplectic Grassmannian $SpGr(k,V)$ of isotropic subspaces. Pragacz gave tableau formulae for positively computing the expansion of these $H^*(Gr(k,V))$ classes into Schubert classes of the target when $k=n$, which corresponds to expanding Schur polynomials into $Q$-Schur polynomials. Coskun described an algorithm for their expansion when $k\leq n$. We give a puzzle-based formula for these expansions, while extending them to equivariant cohomology. We make use of a n…
In a paper by Ghorpade and Raghavan, they provide an explicit combinatorial description of the Hilbert function of the tangent cone at any point on a Schubert variety in the symplectic Grassmannian, by giving a certain "degree-preserving" bijection between a set of monomials defined by an initial ideal and a "standard monomial basis". We prove here that this bijection is in fact a bounded RSK correspondence.
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.
In this paper, we prove a generalization of Kempf-Laksov formula for the degeneracy loci classes in even infinitesimal cohomology theories of the Grassmannian bundle and the Lagrangian Grassmannian bundle.
An explicit rule is given for the product of the degree two class with an arbitrary Schubert class in the torus-equivariant homology of the affine Grassmannian. In addition a Pieri rule (the Schubert expansion of the product of a special Schubert class with an arbitrary one) is established for the equivariant homology of the affine Grassmannians of SL_n and a similar formula is conjectured for Sp_{2n} and SO_{2n+1}. For SL_n the formula is explicit and positive. By a theorem of Peterson these compute certain products of Schubert classes in the torus-equivariant quantum cohomology of flag varie…
We address a unification of the Schubert calculus problems solved by [A. Buch '02] and [A. Knutson-T. Tao '03]. That is, we prove a combinatorial rule for the structure coefficients in the torus-equivariant K-theory of Grassmannians with respect to the basis of Schubert structure sheaves. We thereby deduce the conjectural rule of [H. Thomas-A. Yong '13] for the same coefficients. Both rules are positive in the sense of [D. Anderson-S. Griffeth-E. Miller '11] (and moreover in a stronger form). Our work is based on the combinatorics of genomic tableaux and a generalization of [M.-P. Schutzenberg…
We give a permutation pattern avoidance criteria for determining when the projection map from the flag variety to a Grassmannian induces a fiber bundle structure on a Schubert variety. In particular, we introduce the notion of a split pattern and show that a Schubert variety has such a fiber bundle structure if and only if the corresponding permutation avoids the split patterns 3|12 and 23|1. Continuing, we show that a Schubert variety is an iterated fiber bundle of Grassmannian Schubert varieties if and only if the corresponding permutation avoids (non-split) patterns 3412, 52341, and 635241.…
A driving question in (quantum) cohomology of flag varieties is to find non-recursive, positive combinatorial formulas for expressing the product of two classes in a particularly nice basis, called the Schubert basis. Bertram, Ciocan-Fontanine and Fulton provided a way to compute quantum products of Schubert classes in the Grassmannian of k-planes in complex n-space by doing classical multiplication and then applying a combinatorial rim hook rule which yields the quantum parameter. In this paper, we provide a generalization of this rim hook rule to the setting in which there is also an action …
The Schubert bases of the torus-equivariant homology and cohomology rings of the affine Grassmannian of the special linear group are realized by new families of symmetric functions called k-double Schur functions and affine double Schur functions.
We study the T-equivariant quantum cohomology of the Grassmannian. We prove the vanishing of a certain class of equivariant quantum Littlewood-Richardson coefficients, which implies an equivariant quantum Pieri rule. As in the equivariant case, this implies an algorithm to compute the equivariant quantum Littlewood-Richardson coefficients.
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 $d$.
The cohomology of the affine flag variety of a complex reductive group is a comodule over the cohomology of the affine Grassmannian. We give positive formulae for the coproduct of an affine Schubert class in terms of affine Stanley classes and finite Schubert classes, in (torus-equivariant) cohomology and K-theory. As an application, we deduce monomial positivity for the affine Schubert polynomials of the second author.
