The big cactus group, invariant tensors, and rectangular tableaux

Abstract

The cactus group acts on tensor products of crystals and, through Bender--Knuth involutions, on semistandard Young tableaux. We show that the big cactus group $J'_n=π_1^{\mathfrak S_n}(\overline M_{0,n}(\mathbb R))$, $n\ge3$, is obtained from the cactus group by imposing $n-1$ Dynkin-reversal relations, which say that conjugation by the full reversal acts on the Bender--Knuth generators by the Dynkin diagram automorphism; the quotient map is induced by forgetting the distinguished marked point. We give a second presentation, in which these relations are replaced by the requirement that every reduced word for the longest element of $\mathfrak S_n$ adapted to an orientation of $A_{n-1}$ represents the full reversal. These relations also hold on rectangular tableaux, where every adapted reduced word therefore acts as evacuation, and on invariant tensors: for finite normal crystals of any complex semisimple Lie algebra, the cactus action on invariants factors through $J'_n$. We prove the latter combinatorially in type $A$ and in general via Gaudin eigenline coverings. Haiman's promotion relation follows from a single adapted-word relation, but for $n\ge4$ it is strictly weaker than the whole family.