arXiv subjects

Eric Marberg

Publications and source records attributed to Eric Marberg.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2018

Transition formulas for involution Schubert polynomials

The orbits of the orthogonal and symplectic groups on the flag variety are in bijection, respectively, with the involutions and fixed-point-free involutions in the symmetric group $S_n$. Wyser and Yong have described polynomial representatives for the cohomology classes of the closures of these orbits, which we denote as $\hat{\mathfrak{S}}_y$ (to be called involution Schubert polynomials) and $\hat{\mathfrak{S}}^{\tt FPF}_y$ (to be called fixed-point-free involution Schubert polynomials). Our main results are explicit formulas decomposing the product of $\hat{\mathfrak{S}}_y$ (respectively, $\hat{\mathfrak{S}}^{\tt FPF}_y$) with any $y$-invariant linear polynomial as a linear combination of other involution Schubert polynomials. These identities serve as analogues of Lascoux and Schützenberger's transition formula for Schubert polynomials, and lead to a self-contained algebraic proof of the nontrivial equivalence of several definitions of $\hat{\mathfrak{S}}_y$ and $\hat{\mathfrak{S}}^{\tt FPF}_y$ appearing in the literature. Our formulas also imply combinatorial identities about involution words, certain variations of reduced words for involutions in $S_n$. We construct operators on involution words based on the Little map to prove these identities bijectively. The proofs of our main theorems depend on some new technical results, extending work of Incitti, about covering relations in the Bruhat order of $S_n$ restricted to involutions.

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arXiv2018

Involution words: counting problems and connections to Schubert calculus for symmetric orbit closures

Involution words are variations of reduced words for involutions in Coxeter groups, first studied under the name of "admissible sequences" by Richardson and Springer. They are maximal chains in Richardson and Springer's weak order on involutions. This article is the first in a series of papers on involution words, and focuses on their enumerative properties. We define involution analogues of several objects associated to permutations, including Rothe diagrams, the essential set, Schubert polynomials, and Stanley symmetric functions. These definitions have geometric interpretations for certain intervals in the weak order on involutions. In particular, our definition of "involution Schubert polynomials" can be viewed as a Billey-Jockusch-Stanley type formula for cohomology class representatives of $\mathrm{O}_n$- and $\mathrm{Sp}_{2n}$-orbit closures in the flag variety, defined inductively in recent work of Wyser and Yong. As a special case of a more general theorem, we show that the involution Stanley symmetric function for the longest element of a finite symmetric group is a product of staircase-shaped Schur functions. This implies that the number of involution words for the longest element of a finite symmetric group is equal to the dimension of a certain irreducible representation of a Weyl group of type $B$.

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arXiv2017

Braid relations for involution words in affine Coxeter groups

We describe an algorithm to identify a minimal set of "braid relations" which span and preserve all sets of involution words for twisted Coxeter systems of finite or affine type. We classify the cases in which adding the smallest possible set of "half-braid" relations to the ordinary braid relations produces a spanning set: in the untwisted case, this occurs for the Coxeter systems which are finite with rank two or type $A_n$, or affine with rank three or type $\tilde A_n$. These results generalize recent work of Hu and Zhang on the finite classical cases.

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arXiv2017

Schur P-positivity and involution Stanley symmetric functions

The involution Stanley symmetric functions $\hat{F}_y$ are the stable limits of the analogues of Schubert polynomials for the orbits of the orthogonal group in the flag variety. These symmetric functions are also generating functions for involution words, and are indexed by the involutions in the symmetric group. By construction each $\hat{F}_y$ is a sum of Stanley symmetric functions and therefore Schur positive. We prove the stronger fact that these power series are Schur $P$-positive. We give an algorithm to efficiently compute the decomposition of $\hat{F}_y$ into Schur $P$-summands, and prove that this decomposition is triangular with respect to the dominance order on partitions. As an application, we derive pattern avoidance conditions which characterize the involution Stanley symmetric functions which are equal to Schur $P$-functions. We deduce as a corollary that the involution Stanley symmetric function of the reverse permutation is a Schur $P$-function indexed by a shifted staircase shape. These results lead to alternate proofs of theorems of Ardila-Serrano and DeWitt on skew Schur functions which are Schur $P$-functions. We also prove new Pfaffian formulas for certain related involution Schubert polynomials.

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arXiv2016

Variations of the Poincaré series for affine Weyl groups and q-analogues of Chebyshev polynomials

Let $(W,S)$ be a Coxeter system and write $P_W(q)$ for its Poincaré series. Lusztig has shown that the quotient $P_W(q^2)/P_W(q)$ is equal to a certain power series $L_{W}(q)$, defined by specializing one variable in the generating function recording the lengths and absolute lengths of the involutions in $W$. The simplest inductive method of proving this result for finite Coxeter groups suggests a natural bivariate generalization $L^J_W(s,q) \in \mathbb{Z}[[s,q]]$ depending on a subset $J\subset S$. This new power series specializes to $L_W(q)$ when $s=-1$ and is given explicitly by a sum of rational functions over the involutions which are minimal length representatives of the double cosets of the parabolic subgroup $W_J$ in $W$. When $ W$ is an affine Weyl group, we consider the renormalized power series $T_{ W}(s,q) = L^J_W(s,q) / L_W(q)$ with $J$ given by the generating set of the corresponding finite Weyl group. We show that when $W$ is an affine Weyl group of type $A$, the power series $T_W(s,q)$ is actually a polynomial in $s$ and $q$ with nonnegative coefficients, which turns out to be a $q$-analogue recently studied by Cigler of the Chebyshev polynomials of the first kind, arising in a completely different context.

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arXiv2016

Involution words II: braid relations and atomic structures

Involution words are variations of reduced words for twisted involutions in Coxeter groups. They arise naturally in the study of the Bruhat order, of certain Iwahori-Hecke algebra modules, and of orbit closures in flag varieties. Specifically, to any twisted involutions $x$, $y$ in a Coxeter group $W$ with automorphism $*$, we associate a set of involution words $\hat{\mathcal{R}}_*(x,y)$. This set is the disjoint union of the reduced words of a set of group elements $\mathcal{A}_*(x,y)$, which we call the atoms of $y$ relative to $x$. The atoms, in turn, are contained in a larger set $\mathcal{B}_*(x,y) \subset W$ with a similar definition, whose elements we refer to as Hecke atoms. Our main results concern some interesting properties of the sets $\hat{\mathcal{R}}_*(x,y)$ and $\mathcal{A}_*(x,y) \subset \mathcal{B}_*(x,y)$. For finite Coxeter groups we prove that $\mathcal{A}_*(1,y)$ consists of exactly the minimal-length elements $w \in W$ such that $w^* y \leq w$ in Bruhat order, and conjecture a more general property for arbitrary Coxeter groups. In type $A$, we describe a simple set of conditions characterizing the sets $\mathcal{A}_*(x,y)$ for all involutions $x,y \in S_n$, giving a common generalization of three recent theorems of Can, Joyce, and Wyser. We show that the atoms of a fixed involution in the symmetric group (relative to $x=1$) naturally form a graded poset, while the Hecke atoms surprisingly form an equivalence class under the "Chinese relation" studied by Cassaigne, Espie, et al. These facts allow us to recover a recent theorem of Hu and Zhang describing a set of "braid relations" spanning the involution words of any self-inverse permutation. We prove a generalization of this result giving an analogue of Matsumoto's theorem for involution words in arbitrary Coxeter groups.

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arXiv2015

Bar operators for quasiparabolic conjugacy classes in a Coxeter group

The action of a Coxeter group $W$ on the set of left cosets of a standard parabolic subgroup deforms to define a module $\mathcal{M}^J$ of the group's Iwahori-Hecke algebra $\mathcal{H}$ with a particularly simple form. Rains and Vazirani have introduced the notion of a quasiparabolic set to characterize $W$-sets for which analogous deformations exist; a motivating example is the conjugacy class of fixed point free involutions in the symmetric group. Deodhar has shown that the module $\mathcal{M}^J$ possesses a certain antilinear involution, called the bar operator, and a certain basis invariant under this involution, which generalizes the Kazhdan-Lusztig basis of $\mathcal{H}$. The well-known significance of this basis in representation theory makes it natural to seek to extend Deodhar's results to the quasiparabolic setting. In general, the obstruction to finding such an extension is the existence of an appropriate quasiparabolic analogue of the "bar operator." In this paper, we consider the most natural definition of a quasiparabolic bar operator, and develop a theory of "quasiparabolic Kazhdan-Lusztig bases" under the hypothesis that such a bar operator exists. Giving content to this theory, we prove that a bar operator in the desired sense does exist for quasiparabolic $W$-sets given by twisted conjugacy classes of twisted involutions. Finally, we prove several results classifying the quasiparabolic conjugacy classes in a Coxeter group.

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arXiv2015

Strong forms of self-duality for Hopf monoids in species

A vector species is a functor from the category of finite sets with bijections to vector spaces (over a fixed field); informally, one can view this as a sequence of $S_n$-modules. A Hopf monoid (in the category of vector species) consists of a vector species with unit, counit, product, and coproduct morphisms satisfying several compatibility conditions, analogous to a graded Hopf algebra. A vector species has a basis if and only if it is given by a sequence of $S_n$-modules which are permutation representations. We say that a Hopf monoid is freely self-dual if it is connected and finite-dimensional, and if it has a basis in which the structure constants of its product and coproduct coincide. Such Hopf monoids are self-dual in the usual sense, and we show that they are furthermore both commutative and cocommutative. We prove more specific classification theorems for freely self-dual Hopf monoids whose products (respectively, coproducts) are linearized in the sense that they preserve the basis; we call such Hopf monoids strongly self-dual (respectively, linearly self-dual). In particular, we show that every strongly self-dual Hopf monoid has a basis isomorphic to some species of block-labeled set partitions, on which the product acts as the disjoint union. In turn, every linearly self-dual Hopf monoid has a basis isomorphic to the species of maps to a fixed set, on which the coproduct acts as restriction. It follows that every linearly self-dual Hopf monoid is strongly self-dual. Our final results concern connected Hopf monoids which are finite-dimensional, commutative, and cocommutative. We prove that such a Hopf monoid has a basis in which its product and coproduct are both linearized if and only if it is strongly self-dual with respect to a basis equipped with a certain partial order, generalizing the refinement partial order on set partitions.

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arXiv2015

Comparing and characterizing some constructions of canonical bases from Coxeter systems

The Iwahori-Hecke algebra $\mathcal{H}$ of a Coxeter system $(W,S)$ has a "standard basis" indexed by the elements of $W$ and a "bar involution" given by a certain antilinear map. Together, these form an example of what Webster calls a pre-canonical structure, relative to which the well-known Kazhdan-Lusztig basis of $\mathcal{H}$ is a canonical basis. Lusztig and Vogan have defined a representation of a modified Iwahori-Hecke algebra on the free $\mathbb{Z}[v,v^{-1}]$-module generated by the set of twisted involutions in $W$, and shown that this module has a unique pre-canonical structure satisfying a certain compatibility condition, which admits its own canonical basis which can be viewed as a generalization of the Kazhdan-Lusztig basis. One can modify the parameters defining Lusztig and Vogan's module to obtain other pre-canonical structures, each of which admits a unique canonical basis indexed by twisted involutions. We classify all of the pre-canonical structures which arise in this fashion, and explain the relationships between their resulting canonical bases. While some of these canonical bases are related in a trivial fashion to Lusztig and Vogan's construction, others appear to have no simple relation to what has been previously studied. Along the way, we also clarify the differences between Webster's notion of a canonical basis and the related concepts of an IC basis and a $P$-kernel.

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arXiv2015

Strong forms of linearization for Hopf monoids in species

A vector species is a functor from the category of finite sets with bijections to vector spaces; informally, one can view this as a sequence of $S_n$-modules. A Hopf monoid (in the category of vector species) consists of a vector species with unit, counit, product, and coproduct morphisms satisfying several compatibility conditions, analogous to a graded Hopf algebra. We say that a Hopf monoid is strongly linearized if it has a "basis" preserved by its product and coproduct in a certain sense. We prove several equivalent characterizations of this property, and show that any strongly linearized Hopf monoid which is commutative and cocommutative possesses four bases which one can view as analogues of the classical bases of the algebra of symmetric functions. There are natural functors which turn Hopf monoids into graded Hopf algebras, and applying these functors to strongly linearized Hopf monoids produces several notable families of Hopf algebras. For example, in this way we give a simple unified construction of the Hopf algebras of superclass functions attached to the maximal unipotent subgroups of three families of classical Chevalley groups.

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arXiv2014

Positivity conjectures for Kazhdan-Lusztig theory on twisted involutions: the finite case

Let $(W,S)$ be any Coxeter system and let $w \mapsto w^*$ be an involution of $W$ which preserves the set of simple generators $S$. Lusztig and Vogan have shown that the corresponding set of twisted involutions (i.e., elements $w \in W$ with $w^{-1} = w^*$) naturally generates a module of the Hecke algebra of $(W,S)$ with two distinguished bases. The transition matrix between these bases defines a family of polynomials $P^σ_{y,w}$ which one can view as a "twisted" analogue of the much-studied family of Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomials of $(W,S)$. The polynomials $P^σ_{y,w}$ can have negative coefficients, but display several conjectural positivity properties of interest, which parallel positivity properties of the Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomials. This paper reports on some calculations which verify four such positivity conjectures in several finite cases of interest, in particular for the non-crystallographic Coxeter systems of types $H_3$ and $H_4$.

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arXiv2014

Positivity conjectures for Kazhdan-Lusztig theory on twisted involutions: the universal case

Let $(W,S)$ be a Coxeter system and let $w \mapsto w^*$ be an involution of $W$ which preserves the set of simple generators $S$. Lusztig and Vogan have recently shown that the set of twisted involutions (i.e., elements $w \in W$ with $w^{-1} = w^*$) naturally generates a module of the Hecke algebra of $(W,S)$ with two distinguished bases. The transition matrix between these bases defines a family of polynomials $P^σ_{y,w}$ which one can view as "twisted" analogues of the much-studied Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomials of $(W,S)$. The polynomials $P^σ_{y,w}$ can have negative coefficients, but display several conjectural positivity properties of interest. This paper reviews Lusztig's construction and then proves three such positivity properties for Coxeter systems which are universal (i.e., having no braids relations), generalizing previous work of Dyer. Our methods are entirely combinatorial and elementary, in contrast to the geometric arguments employed by Lusztig and Vogan to prove similar positivity conjectures for crystallographic Coxeter systems.

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arXiv2013

How to compute the Frobenius-Schur indicator of a unipotent character of a finite Coxeter system

For each finite, irreducible Coxeter system $(W,S)$, Lusztig has associated a set of "unipotent characters" $\Uch(W)$. There is also a notion of a "Fourier transform" on the space of functions $\Uch(W) \to \RR$, due to Lusztig for Weyl groups and to Broué, Lusztig, and Malle in the remaining cases. This paper concerns a certain $W$-representation $\varrho_{W}$ in the vector space generated by the involutions of $W$. Our main result is to show that the irreducible multiplicities of $\varrho_W$ are given by the Fourier transform of a unique function $ε: \Uch(W) \to \{-1,0,1\}$, which for various reasons serves naturally as a heuristic definition of the Frobenius-Schur indicator on $\Uch(W)$. The formula we obtain for $ε$ extends prior work of Casselman, Kottwitz, Lusztig, and Vogan addressing the case in which $W$ is a Weyl group. We include in addition a succinct description of the irreducible decomposition of $\varrho_W$ derived by Kottwitz when $(W,S)$ is classical, and prove that $\varrho_{W}$ defines a Gelfand model if and only if $(W,S)$ has type $A_n$, $H_3$, or $I_2(m)$ with $m$ odd. We show finally that a conjecture of Kottwitz connecting the decomposition of $\varrho_W$ to the left cells of $W$ holds in all non-crystallographic types, and observe that a weaker form of Kottwitz's conjecture holds in general. In giving these results, we carefully survey the construction and notable properties of the set $\Uch(W)$ and its attached Fourier transform.

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arXiv2013

Crossings and nestings in colored set partitions

Chen, Deng, Du, Stanley, and Yan introduced the notion of $k$-crossings and $k$-nestings for set partitions, and proved that the sizes of the largest $k$-crossings and $k$-nestings in the partitions of an $n$-set possess a symmetric joint distribution. This work considers a generalization of these results to set partitions whose arcs are labeled by an $r$-element set (which we call \emph{$r$-colored set partitions}). In this context, a $k$-crossing or $k$-nesting is a sequence of arcs, all with the same color, which form a $k$-crossing or $k$-nesting in the usual sense. After showing that the sizes of the largest crossings and nestings in colored set partitions likewise have a symmetric joint distribution, we consider several related enumeration problems. We prove that $r$-colored set partitions with no crossing arcs of the same color are in bijection with certain paths in $\NN^r$, generalizing the correspondence between noncrossing (uncolored) set partitions and 2-Motzkin paths. Combining this with recent work of Bousquet-Mélou and Mishna affords a proof that the sequence counting noncrossing 2-colored set partitions is P-recursive. We also discuss how our methods extend to several variations of colored set partitions with analogous notions of crossings and nestings.

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arXiv2012

Isomorphisms, automorphisms, and generalized involution models

We investigate the generalized involution models of the projective reflection groups $G(r,p,q,n)$. This family of groups parametrizes all quotients of the complex reflection groups $G(r,p,n)$ by scalar subgroups. Our classification is ultimately incomplete, but we provide several necessary and sufficient conditions for generalized involution models to exist in various cases. In the process we solve several intermediate problems concerning the structure of projective reflection groups. We derive a simple criterion for determining whether two groups $G(r,p,q,n)$ and $G(r,p',q',n)$ are isomorphic. We also describe explicitly the form of all automorphisms of $G(r,p,q,n)$, outside a finite list of exceptional cases. Building on prior work, this allows us to prove that $G(r,p,1,n)$ has a generalized involution model if and only if $G(r,p,1,n) \cong G(r,1,p,n)$. We also classify which groups $G(r,p,q,n)$ have generalized involution models when $n=2$, or $q$ is odd, or $n$ is odd.

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arXiv2012

Actions and identities on set partitions

A labeled set partition is a partition of a set of integers whose arcs are labeled by nonzero elements of an abelian group $A$. Inspired by the action of the linear characters of the unitriangular group on its supercharacters, we define a group action of $A^n$ on the set of $A$-labeled partitions of an $(n+1)$-set. By investigating the orbit decomposition of various families of set partitions under this action, we derive new combinatorial proofs of Coker's identity for the Narayana polynomial and its type B analogue, and establish a number of other related identities. In return, we also prove some enumerative results concerning André and Neto's supercharacter theories of type B and D.

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arXiv2012

Iterative character constructions for algebra groups

We construct a family of orthogonal characters of an algebra group which decompose the supercharacters defined by Diaconis and Isaacs. Like supercharacters, these characters are given by nonnegative integer linear combinations of Kirillov functions and are induced from linear supercharacters of certain algebra subgroups. We derive a formula for these characters and give a condition for their irreducibility; generalizing a theorem of Otto, we also show that each such character has the same number of Kirillov functions and irreducible characters as constituents. In proving these results, we observe as an application how a recent computation by Evseev implies that every irreducible character of the unitriangular group $\UT_n(q)$ of unipotent $n\times n$ upper triangular matrices over a finite field with $q$ elements is a Kirillov function if and only if $n\leq 12$. As a further application, we discuss some more general conditions showing that Kirillov functions are characters, and describe some results related to counting the irreducible constituents of supercharacters.

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arXiv2012

Heisenberg characters, unitriangular groups, and Fibonacci numbers

Let $\UT_n(\FF_q)$ denote the group of unipotent $n\times n$ upper triangular matrices over a finite field with $q$ elements. We show that the Heisenberg characters of $\UT_{n+1}(\FF_q)$ are indexed by lattice paths from the origin to the line $x+y=n$ using the steps $(1,0), (1,1), (0,1), (1,1)$, which are labeled in a certain way by nonzero elements of $\FF_q$. In particular, we prove for $n\geq 1$ that the number of Heisenberg characters of $\UT_{n+1}(\FF_q)$ is a polynomial in $q-1$ with nonnegative integer coefficients and degree $n$, whose leading coefficient is the $n$th Fibonacci number. Similarly, we find that the number of Heisenberg supercharacters of $\UT_n(\FF_q)$ is a polynomial in $q-1$ whose coefficients are Delannoy numbers and whose values give a $q$-analogue for the Pell numbers. By counting the fixed points of the action of a certain group of linear characters, we prove that the numbers of supercharacters, irreducible supercharacters, Heisenberg supercharacters, and Heisenberg characters of the subgroup of $\UT_n(\FF_q)$ consisting of matrices whose superdiagonal entries sum to zero are likewise all polynomials in $q-1$ with nonnegative integer coefficients.

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