The conjugacy classes of nilpotent $n\times n$ matrices can be parametrised by partitions $λ$ of $n$, and for a nilpotent $η$ in the class parametrised by $λ$, the variety $F_η$ of $η$-stable flags has its irreducible components parametrised by the standard Young tableaux of shape $λ$. We indicate how several algorithmic constructions defined for Young tableaux have significance in this context, thus extending Steinberg's result that the relative position of flags generically chosen in the irreducible components of $F_η$ parametrised by tableaux $P$ and $Q$, is the permutation associated to $(P,Q)$ under the Robinson-Schensted correspondence. Other constructions for which we give interpretations are Schützenberger's involution of the set of Young tableaux, jeu de taquin (leading also to an interpretation of Littlewood-Richardson coefficients), and the transpose Robinson-Schensted correspondence (defined using column insertion). In each case we use a doubly indexed family of partitions, defined in terms of the flag (or pair of flags) determined by a point chosen in the variety under consideration. We show that for generic choices, the family satisfies certain combinatorial relations, whence the family describes the computation of the algorithmic operation being interpreted, as we described in a previous publication.
We present families of tableaux which interpolate between the classical semi-standard Young tableaux and matching field tableaux. Algebraically, this corresponds to SAGBI bases of Plücker algebras. We show that each such family of tableaux leads to a toric ideal, that can be realized as initial of the Plücker ideal, hence a toric degeneration for the flag variety.
The main results of this paper are accessible with only basic linear algebra. Given an increasing sequence of dimensions, a flag in a vector space is an increasing sequence of subspaces with those dimensions. The set of all such flags (the flag manifold) can be projectively coordinatized using products of minors of a matrix. These products are indexed by tableaux on a Young diagram. A basis of "standard monomials" for the vector space generated by such projective coordinates over the entire flag manifold has long been known. A Schubert variety is a subset of flags specified by a permutation. L…
We define a set of PBW-semistandard tableaux that is in a weight preserving bijection with the set of monomials corresponding to integral points in the Feigin-Fourier-Littelmann-Vinberg polytope for highest weight modules of the symplectic Lie algebra. We then show that these tableaux parametrize bases of the homogeneous coordinate rings of the complete symplectic original and PBW degenerate flag varieties. From this construction, we provide explicit degenerate relations that generate the defining ideal of the PBW degenerate variety. These relations consist of type A degenerate Plücker relatio…
Ikeda-Mihalcea-Naruse's double Schubert polynomials represent the equivariant cohomology classes of Schubert varieties in the type C flag varieties. The goal of this paper is to obtain a new tableau formula of these polynomials associated to vexillary signed permutations introduced by Anderson-Fulton. To achieve that goal, we introduce flagged factorial (Schur) $Q$-functions, combinatorially defined in terms of (flagged) marked shifted tableaux for flagged strict partitions, and prove their Schur-Pfaffian formula. As an application, we also obtain a new combinatorial formula of factorial $Q$-f…
A prism tableau is a set of reverse semistandard tableaux, each positioned within an ambient grid. Prism tableaux were introduced to provide a formula for the Schubert polynomials of A. Lascoux and M.P. Schützenberger. This formula directly generalizes the well known expression for Schur polynomials as a sum over semistandard tableaux. Alternating sign matrix varieties generalize the matrix Schubert varieties of W. Fulton. We use prism tableaux to give a formula for the multidegree of an alternating sign matrix variety.
We consider two partial orders on standard Young tableaux. The first one is induced from the weak right Bruhat order on symmetric group by Robinson-Schensted algorithm. The second one is induced from the order on Young diagrams by considering a Young tableau as a chain of Young diagrams. We show that these two orders of completely different nature coincide on the subset of Young tableaux with 2 columns or with 2 rows. This fact has very interesting geometric implications for orbital varieties of nilpotent order 2 in sl(n).
We study Gröbner degenerations of Schubert varieties inside flag varieties. We consider toric degenerations of flag varieties induced by matching fields and semi-standard Young tableaux. We describe an analogue of matching field ideals for Schubert varieties inside the flag variety and give a complete characterization of toric ideals among them. We use a combinatorial approach to standard monomial theory to show that block diagonal matching fields give rise to toric degenerations. Our methods and results use the combinatorics of permutations associated to Schubert varieties, matching fields an…
The goal of this paper is to study the link between the topology of the degenerate flag varieties and combinatorics of the Dellac configurations. We define three new classes of algebraic varieties closely related to the degenerate flag varieties of types A and C. The construction is based on the quiver Grassmannian realization of the degenerate flag varieties and odd symplectic and odd and even orthogonal groups. We study basic properties of our varieties; in particular, we construct cellular decomposition in all the three cases above (as well as in the case of even symplectic group). We also …
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…
Following the historical track in pursuing $T$-equivariant flat toric degenerations of flag varieties and spherical varieties, we explain how powerful tools in algebraic geometry and representation theory, such as canonical bases, Newton-Okounkov bodies, PBW-filtrations and cluster algebras come to push the subject forward.
A partial flag variety ${\mathcal {P}}_K$ of a Kac-Moody group $G$ has a natural stratification into projected Richardson varieties. When $G$ is a connected reductive group, a Bruhat atlas for ${\mathcal {P}}_K$ was constructed by He, Knutson and Lu: ${\mathcal {P}}_K$ is locally modeled with Schubert varieties in some Kac-Moody flag variety as stratified spaces. The existence of Bruaht atlases implies some nice combinatorial and geometric properties on the partial flag varieties and the decomposition into projected Richardson varieties. A Bruhat atlas does not exist for partial flag varieties…
We study the $S_n$-equivariant log-concavity of the cohomology of flag varieties, also known as the coinvariant ring of $S_n$. Using the theory of representation stability, we give computer-assisted proofs of the equivariant log-concavity in low degrees and high degrees and conjecture that it holds for all degrees. Furthermore, we make a stronger unimodal conjecture which implies the equivariant log-concavity.
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 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…
Let $\SF^a_λ$ be the degenerate symplectic flag variety. These are projective singular irreducible $\bG_a^M$ degenerations of the classical flag varieties for symplectic group $Sp_{2n}$. We give an explicit construction for the varieties $\SF^a_λ$ and construct their desingularizations, similar to the Bott-Samelson resolutions in the classical case. We prove that $\SF^a_\la$ are normal locally complete intersections with terminal and rational singularities. We also show that these varieties are Frobenius split. Using the above mentioned results, we prove an analogue of the Borel-Weil-Bott theo…
We continue, generalize and expand our study of linear degenerations of flag varieties from [G. Cerulli Irelli, X. Fang, E. Feigin, G. Fourier, M. Reineke, Math. Z. 287 (2017), no. 1-2, 615-654]. We realize partial flag varieties as quiver Grassmannians for equi-oriented type A quivers and construct linear degenerations by varying the corresponding quiver representation. We prove that there exists the deepest flat degeneration and the deepest flat irreducible degeneration: the former is the partial analogue of the mf-degenerate flag variety and the latter coincides with the partial PBW-degener…
We produce a new basis for the Schur and Weyl modules associated to a row-convex shape, D. The basis is indexed by new class of "straight" tableaux which we introduce by weakening the usual requirements for standard tableaux. Spanning is proved via a new straightening algorithm for expanding elements of the representation into this basis. For skew shapes, this algorithm specializes to the classical straightening law. The new straight basis is used to produce bases for flagged Schur and Weyl modules, to provide Groebner and sagbi bases for the homogeneous coordinate rings of some configuration …
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 compute toric degenerations arising from the tropicalization of the full flag varieties $\mathcal{F}\ell_4$ and $\mathcal{F}\ell_5$ embedded in a product of Grassmannians. For $\mathcal{F}\ell_4$ and $\mathcal{F}\ell_5$ we compare toric degenerations arising from string polytopes and the FFLV polytope with those obtained from the tropicalization of the flag varieties. We also present a general procedure to find toric degenerations in the cases where the initial ideal arising from a cone of the tropicalization of a variety is not prime.
We study the $\bG_a^M$ degenerations $\Fl^a_\la$ of the type $A$ flag varieties $\Fl_\la$. We describe these degenerations explicitly as subvarieties in the products of Grassmanians. We construct cell decompositions of $\Fl^a_\la$ and show that for complete flags the number of cells is equal to the normalized median Genocchi numbers $h_n$. This leads to a new combinatorial definition of the numbers $h_n$. We also compute the Poincar\' e polynomials of the complete degenerate flag varieties via a natural statistics on the set of Dellac's configurations, similar to the length statistics on the s…
Divided difference operators are degree-reducing operators on the cohomology of flag varieties that are used to compute algebraic invariants of the ring (for instance, structure constants). We identify divided difference operators on the equivariant cohomology of G/P for arbitrary partial flag varieties of arbitrary Lie type, and show how to use them in the ordinary cohomology of G/P. We provide three applications. The first shows that all Schubert classes of partial flag varieties can be generated from a sequence of divided difference operators on the highest-degree Schubert class. The second…
We study toric degenerations of opposite Schubert and Richardson varieties inside degenerations of Grassmannians and flag varieties. These degenerations are parametrized by matching fields in the sense of Sturmfels and Zelevinsky. We construct so-called restricted matching field ideals whose generating sets are understood combinatorially through tableaux. We determine when these ideals are toric and coincide with Gröbner degenerations of Richardson varieties using the well established standard monomial theory for Grassmannians and flag varieties.
We show that various genus zero Gromov-Witten invariants for flag varieties representing different homology classes are indeed the same. In particular, many of them are classical intersection numbers of Schubert cycles.
In this paper we prove instances of the cyclic sieving phenomenon for finite Grassmannians and partial flag varieties, which carry the action of various tori in the finite general linear group GL_n(F_q). The polynomials involved are sums of certain weights of the minimal length parabolic coset representatives of the symmetric group S_n, where the weight of a coset representative can be written as a product over its inversions.
In this paper we generalize to the case of partial flags a result proved both by Spaltenstein and by Steinberg that relates the relative position of two complete flags and the irreducible components of the flag variety in which they lie, using the Robinson-Schensted-Knuth correspondence.
This paper introduces a two-parameter deformation of the cohomology of generalized flag varieties. One special case is the Belkale-Kumar deformation (used to study eigencones of Lie groups). Another picks out intersections of Schubert varieties that behave nicely under projections. Our construction yields a new proof that the Belkale-Kumar product is well-defined. This proof is shorter and more elementary than earlier proofs.
Flag matroids are combinatorial abstractions of flags of linear subspaces, just as matroids are of linear subspaces. We introduce the flag Dressian as a tropical analogue of the partial flag variety, and prove a correspondence between: (a) points on the flag Dressian, (b) valuated flag matroids, (c) flags of projective tropical linear spaces, and (d) coherent flag matroidal subdivisions. We introduce and characterize projective tropical linear spaces, which serve as a fundamental tool in our proof. We apply the correspondence to prove that all valuated flag matroids on ground set up to size 5 …
We study standard monomial bases for Richardson varieties inside the flag variety. In general, writing down a standard monomial basis for a Richardson variety can be challenging, as it involves computing so-called defining chains or key tableaux. However, for a certain family of Richardson varieties, indexed by compatible permutations, we provide a very direct and straightforward combinatorial rule for writing down a standard monomial basis. We apply this result to the study of toric degenerations of Richardson varieties. In particular, we provide a new family of toric degenerations of Richard…
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.
In this paper, we study equivariant vector bundles on partial flag varieties arising from Schur functors. We show that a partial flag variety with three or more steps does not admit an Ulrich bundle of this form with respect to the minimal ample class. We classify Ulrich bundles of this form on two-step flag varieties F(2,n;n+1), F(2,n;n+2), F(k,k+1;n), and F(k,k+2;n). We give a conjectural description of the two-step flag varieties which admit such Ulrich bundles. Our results provide counterexamples to conjectures by Costa and Miro-Roig.
In this paper, we study equivariant vector bundles on partial flag varieties arising from Schur functors. We show that a partial flag variety with three or more steps does not admit an Ulrich bundle of this form with respect to the minimal ample class. We classify Ulrich bundles of this form on two-step flag varieties F(1,n-1;n), F(2,n-1;n), F(2,n-2;n), F(k,k+1;n) and F(k,k+2;n). We give a conjectural description of the two-step flag varieties which admit such Ulrich bundles.
We study positivity notions for the tropicalization of type A flag varieties and the flag Dressian. We focus on the hollow case, where we have one constituent of rank 1 and another of corank 1. We characterize the three different notions that exist for this case in terms of Plücker coordinates. These notions are the tropicalization of the totally non-negative flag variety, Bruhat subdivisions and the non-negative flag Dressian. We show the first example where the first two concepts above do not coincide. In this case the non-negative flag Dressian equals the tropicalization of the Plücker non-…
We show a canonical injective morphism from the quantum cohomology ring QH(G/P) to the associated graded algebra of QH(G/B), which is with respect to a nice filtration on QH(G/B) introduced by Leung and the author. This tells us the vanishing of a lot of genus zero, three-pointed Gromov-Witten invariants of flag varieties G/P.
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.
The B. and M. Shapiro conjecture stated that all solutions of the Schubert Calculus problems associated with real points on the rational normal curve should be real. For Grassmannians, it was proved by Mukhin, Tarasov and Varchenko. For flag varieties, Sottile found a counterexample and suggested that all solutions should be real under certain monotonicity conditions. In this paper, we compute lower bounds on the number of real solutions for some special cases of the B. and M. Shapiro conjecture for flag varieties, when Sottile's monotonicity conditions are not satisfied.
We classify the invariant prime ideals of a quantum partial flag variety under the action of the related maximal torus. As a result we construct a bijection between them and the torus orbits of symplectic leaves of the standard Poisson structure on the corresponding flag variety. It was previously shown by K. Goodearl and the author that the latter are precisely the Lusztig strata of the partial flag variety.