On Kostant's conjecture for components of $V(\rho)\otimes V(\rho)$

Abstract

For a complex simple Lie algebra $\mathfrak{g}$ or rank $r$, let $\rho$ be the half sum of positive roots and $P(2\rho)\subset \mathbb{R}^r$ be the convex hull of all dominant weights $\lambda$ of the form $\lambda=2\rho-\sum_{i=1}^r a_i\alpha_i$ with $a_i\in \mathbb{Z}_{\geq 0}$ for $1\leq i\leq r$. We show that if $\lambda$ is a vertex of $P(2\rho)$, then $V(\lambda)$ appears in $V(\rho) \otimes V(\rho)$ with multiplicity one, proving partially (for the vertices of $P(2\rho)$) a conjecture of Kostant describing components of $V(\rho)\otimes V(\rho)$. This result allows us to give an alternative proof for a weaker form of the conjecture (up to saturation factor) for any $\mathfrak{g}$. Further, using works of Knutson-Tau on the saturation property of $\mathfrak{sl_{r+1}}$, our results give an alternative proof of Kostant's conjecture in the particular case $\mathfrak{g}=\mathfrak{sl_{r+1}}$.