This is a new version of my earlier paper "A geometric method in the theory of SL_n-representations of groups" which mentions connections between my work and spin networks and number theory (Fermat's Last Theorem). To appear in Trans. of AMS. 43 pages, 29 figures
An SL_n-character of a group G is the trace of an SL_n-representation of G. We show that all algebraic relations between SL_n-characters of G can be visualized as relations between graphs (resembling Feynman diagrams) in any topological space X, with pi_1(X)=G. We also show that all such relations are implied by a single local relation between graphs. In this way, we provide a topological approach to the study of SL_n-representations of groups.
The motivation for this paper was our work with J. Przytycki on invariants of links in 3-manifolds which are based on the Kauffman bracket skein relation. These invariants lead to a notion of a skein module of M which, by a theorem of Bullock, Przytycki, and the author, is a deformation of the SL_2-character variety of pi_1(M). This paper provides a generalization of this result to all SL_n-character varieties.
Kashiwara and Saito have a geometric construction of the infinity crystal for any symmetric Kac-Moody algebra. The underlying set consists of the irreducible components of Lusztig's quiver varieties, which are varieties of nilpotent representations of a pre-projective algebra. We generalize this to symmetrizable Kac-Moody algebras by replacing Lusztig's preprojective algebra with a more general one due to Dlab and Ringel. In non-symmetric types we are forced to work over non-algebraically-closed fields.
We consider a generalization of the quiver varieties of Lusztig and Nakajima to the case of all symmetrizable Kac-Moody Lie algebras. To deal with the non-simply laced case one considers admissible automorphisms of a quiver and the irreducible components of the quiver varieties fixed by this automorphism. We define a crystal structure on these irreducible components and show that the crystals obtained are isomorphic to those associated to the crystal bases of the lower half of the universal enveloping algebra and the irreducible highest weight representations of the non-simply laced Kac-Moody …
We prove that the coordinate rings of SO(2n,C)-character varieties are not generated by trace functions nor generalized trace functions for $n\geq 2$ and all groups Gamma of corank $\geq 2.$ Furthermore, we give examples of non-conjugate completely reducible representations undistinguishable by generalized trace functions. Hence, SO(2n,C)-character varieties are not varieties of characters. However, we also prove that any generic SO(2n,C)-representation of a free group can be distinguished from all non-equivalent representations by trace functions and by a single generalized trace function.
We show that, with coefficients in a field or a complete local ring k, the Braden-MacPherson algorithm computes the stalks of parity sheaves with coefficients in k. As a consequence we deduce that the Braden-MacPherson algorithm may be used to calculate the characters of tilting modules for algebraic groups and show that the p-smooth locus of (Kac-Moody) Schubert varieties agrees with the rationally smooth locus, if the underlying Bruhat graph satisfies a GKM-condition.
We study representation theory of quantizations of Nakajima quiver varieties associated to bouquet quivers. We show that there are no finite dimensional representations of the quantizations $\overline{\mathcal{A}}_λ(n, \ell)$ if dim $V=n$ is greater than $1$ and so is the number of loops $\ell$. We find that there is a Hamiltonian torus action with finitely many fixed points in case $n\leq 3$, provide the dimensions of Hom-spaces between standard objects in category $\mathcal{O}$ and compute the multiplicities of simples in standards for $n=2$ in case of one-dimensional framing and generic one…
We study geometric and combinatorial properties of the degenerate flag varieties of type A. These varieties are acted upon by the automorphism group of a certain representation of a type A quiver, containing a maximal torus T. Using the group action, we describe the moment graphs, encoding the zero- and one-dimensional T-orbits. We also study the smooth and singular loci of the degenerate flag varieties. We show that the Euler characteristic of the smooth locus is equal to the large Schröder number and the Poincaré polynomial is given by a natural statistics counting the number of diagonal ste…
We prove that quantized multiplicative quiver varieties and quantum character varieties define sheaves of Azumaya algebras over the corresponding classical moduli spaces, and we prove that the Azumaya locus of the Kauffman bracket skein algebras contains the smooth locus, proving a strong form of the Unicity Conjecture of Bonahon and Wong. The proofs exploit a strong compatibility between quantum Hamiltonian reduction and the quantum Frobenius homomorphism as it arises in each setting. We therefore introduce the concepts of Frobenius quantum moment maps and their Hamiltonian reduction, and of …
In this paper, we consider affine Deligne-Lusztig varieties $X_w(b)$ and their certain union $X(μ,b)$ inside the affine flag variety of a reductive group. Several important results in the study of affine Deligne-Lusztig varieties have been established under the so-called superregularity hypothesis. Such results include a description of generic Newton points in Iwahori double cosets of loop groups, covering relation in associated Iwahori-Weyl group and dimension formula for $X(μ,b)$. We show that one can considerably weaken the superregularity hypothesis and sometimes completely eliminate it, t…
Let $ π$ be an irreducible Harish-Chandra $ (\mathfrak{g}, K) $-module, and denote its associated variety by $ AV(π) $. If $ AV(π) $ is reducible, then each irreducible component must contain codimension one boundary component. Thus we are interested in the codimension one adjacency of nilpotent orbits for a symmetric pair $ (G, K) $. We define the notion of orbit graph and associated graph for $ π$, and study its structure for classical symmetric pairs; number of vertices, edges, connected components, etc. As a result, we prove that the orbit graph is connecetd for even nilpotent orbits. Fina…
We study a class of perverse sheaves on some spherical varieties which include the strata of the De Concini-Procesi completion of a symmetric variety. This is a generalization of the theory of (parabolic) character sheaves.
In this paper we investigate the relationship between twisted and untwisted character varieties via a specific instance of the Cohomological Hall algebra for moduli of objects in 3-Calabi-Yau categories introduced by Kontsevich and Soibelman. In terms of Donaldson--Thomas theory, this relationship is completely understood via the calculations of Hausel and Villegas of the E polynomials of twisted character varieties and untwisted character stacks. We present a conjectural lift of this relationship to the cohomological Hall algebra setting.
We find finite, reasonably small, generator sets of the coordinate rings of G-character varieties of finitely generated groups for all classical groups G. This result together with the method of Grobner basis gives an algorithm for describing character varieties by explicit polynomial equations. Additionally, we describe finite sets of generators of the fields of rational functions on G-character varieties for all exceptional algebraic groups G.
A family of new algebraic Poisson varieties will be constructed, generalising the complex character varieties of Riemann surfaces. Then the well-known (Poisson) mapping class group actions on the character varieties will be generalised.
We calculate the $E$-polynomials of the $SL_3(\mathbb{C})$ and $GL_3(\mathbb{C})$-character varieties of compact oriented surfaces of any genus and the $E$-polynomials of the $SL_2(\mathbb{C})$ and $GL_2(\mathbb{C})$-character varieties of compact non-orientable surfaces of any Euler characteristic. Our methods also give a new and significantly simpler computation of the $E$-polynomials of the $SL_2(\mathbb{C})$-character varieties of compact orientable surfaces, which were computed by Logares, Muñoz and Newstead for genus $g=1,2$ and by Martinez and Muñoz for $g \ge 3$. Our technique is based…
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 compute the E-polynomials of a family of twisted character varieties by proving they have polynomial count, and applying a result of N. Katz on the counting functions. To compute the number of GF(q)-points of these varieties as a function of q, we used a formula of Frobenius. Our calculations made use of the character tables of Gl(n,q) and Sl(n,q), previously computed by J. A. Green and G. Lehrer, and a result of Hanlon on the Möbius function of a subposet of set-partitions. The Euler Characteristics of these character varieties are calculated with these polynomial.
I demonstrate how certain identities for Macdonald's polynomials established by Garsia, Haiman and Tesler, together with the conjecture of Hausel, Letellier and Villegas imply explicit relations between mixed Hodge polynomials of different character varieties.
In this article we explain how the coordinate ring of each (open) Schubert variety in the Grassmannian can be identified with a cluster algebra, whose combinatorial structure is encoded using (target labelings of) Postnikov's plabic graphs. This result generalizes a theorem of Scott (Scott 2006) for the Grassmannian, and proves a folklore conjecture for Schubert varieties that has been believed by experts since (Scott 2006), though the statement was not formally written down until Müller-Speyer explicitly conjectured it (Müller-Speyer 2016). To prove this conjecture we use a result of Leclerc …
Via counting over finite fields, we derive explicit formulas for the E-polynomials and Euler characteristics of GL(d)- and PGL(d)-character varieties of free groups. We prove a positivity property for these polynomials and relate them to the number of subgroups of finite index.
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 count points over a finite field on wild character varieties of Riemann surfaces for singularities with regular semisimple leading term. The new feature in our counting formulas is the appearance of characters of Yokonuma-Hecke algebras. Our result leads to the conjecture that the mixed Hodge polynomials of these character varieties agree with previously conjectured perverse Hodge polynomials of certain twisted parabolic Higgs moduli spaces, indicating the possibility of a P=W conjecture for a suitable wild Hitchin system.
We determine generators of the coordinate ring of $SL_2$-character varieties. In the case of the free group $F_3$ we obtain an explicit equation of the $SL_2$-character variety. For free groups $F_k$ we find transcendental generators. Finally, for the case of the 2-torus, we get an explicit equation of the $SL_2$-character variety and use the description to compute their E-polynomials.
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 this paper, we compute the virtual classes in the Grothendieck ring of algebraic varieties of $\mathrm{SL}_2(\mathbb{C})$-character varieties over compact orientable surfaces with parabolic points of semi-simple type. When the parabolic punctures are chosen to be semi-simple non-generic, we show that a new interaction phenomenon appears generating a recursive pattern.
In previous work a relation between a large class of Kac-Moody algebras and meromorphic connections on global curves was established---notably the Weyl group gives isomorphisms between different moduli spaces of connections, and the root system is also seen to play a role. This involved a modular interpretation of many Nakajima quiver varieties, as moduli spaces of connections, whenever the underlying graph was a complete k-partite graph (or more generally a supernova graph). However in the isomonodromy story, or wild nonabelian Hodge theory, slightly larger moduli spaces of connections are co…
This PhD Thesis is devoted to the study of Hodge structures on a special type of complex algebraic varieties, the so-called character varieties. For this purpose, we propose to use a powerful algebro-geometric tool coming from theoretical physics, known as Topological Quantum Field Theory (TQFT). With this idea in mind, in the present Thesis we develop a formalism that allows us to construct TQFTs from two simpler pieces of data: a field theory (geometric data) and a quantisation (algebraic data). As an application, we construct a TQFT computing Hodge structures on representation varieties and…
