arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Frank Sottile.
We investigate algebraic structures that can be placed on vertices of the multiplihedra, a family of polytopes originating in the study of higher categories and homotopy theory. Most compelling among these are two distinct structures of a Hopf module over the Loday-Ronco Hopf algebra.
We use Hopf algebras to prove a version of the Littlewood-Richardson rule for skew Schur functions, which implies a conjecture of Assaf and McNamara. We also establish skew Littlewood-Richardson rules for Schur P- and Q-functions and noncommutative ribbon Schur functions, as well as skew Pieri rules for k-Schur functions, dual k-Schur functions, and for the homology of the affine Grassmannian of the symplectic group.
We present a new continuation algorithm to find all nondegenerate real solutions to a system of polynomial equations. Unlike homotopy methods, it is not based on a deformation of the system; instead, it traces real curves connecting the solutions of one system of equations to those of another, eventually leading to the desired real solutions. It also differs from homotopy methods in that it follows only real paths and computes no complex solutions of the original equations. The number of curves traced is bounded by the fewnomial bound for real solutions, and the method takes advantage of any slack in that bound.
The multiplihedra {M_n} form a family of polytopes originating in the study of higher categories and homotopy theory. While the multiplihedra may be unfamiliar to the algebraic combinatorics community, it is nestled between two families of polytopes that certainly are not: the permutahedra {S_n} and associahedra {Y_n}. The maps between these families reveal several new Hopf structures on tree-like objects nestled between the Malvenuto-Reutenauer (MR) Hopf algebra of permutations and the Loday-Ronco (LR) Hopf algebra of planar binary trees. We begin their study here, constructing a module over MR and a Hopf module over LR from the multiplihedra. Rich structural information about this module is uncovered via a change of basis--using Möbius inversion in posets built on the 1-skeleta of the {M_n}. Our analysis uses the notion of an interval retract, which should have independent interest in poset combinatorics. It also reveals new families of polytopes, and even a new factorization of a known projection from the associahedra to hypercubes.
The theorem of Mukhin, Tarasov, and Varchenko (formerly the Shapiro conjecture for Grassmannians) asserts that all (a priori complex) solutions to certain geometric problems in the Schubert calculus are actually real. Their proof is quite remarkable, using ideas from integrable systems, Fuchsian differential equations, and representation theory. There is now a second proof of this result, and it has ramifications in other areas of mathematics, from curves to control theory to combinatorics. Despite this work, the original Shapiro conjecture is not yet settled. While it is false as stated, it has several interesting and not quite understood modifications and generalizations that are likely true, and the strongest and most subtle version of the Shapiro conjecture for Grassmannians remains open.
We classify the homogeneous polynomials in three variables whose toric polar linear system defines a Cremona transformation. This classification also includes, as a proper subset, the classification of toric surface patches from geometric modeling which have linear precision. Besides the well-known tensor product patches and Bézier triangles, we identify a family of toric patches with trapezoidal shape, each of which has linear precision. Bézier triangles and tensor product patches are special cases of trapezoidal patches.
We give a bound for the number of real solutions to systems of n polynomials in n variables, where the monomials appearing in different polynomials are distinct. This bound is smaller than the fewnomial bound if this structure of the polynomials is not taken into account.
We use ideas from algebraic geometry and dynamical systems to explain some ways that control points influence the shape of a Bézier curve or patch. In particular, we establish a generalization of Birch's Theorem and use it to deduce sufficient conditions on the control points for a patch to be injective. We also explain a way that the control points influence the shape via degenerations to regular control polytopes. The natural objects of this investigation are irrational patches, which are a generalization of Krasauskas's toric patches, and include Bézier and tensor product patches as important special cases.
We give a precise mathematical formulation for the notions of a parametric patch and linear precision, and establish their elementary properties. We relate linear precision to the geometry of a particular linear projection, giving necessary (and quite restrictive) conditions for a patch to possess linear precision. A main focus is on linear precision for Krasauskas' toric patches, which we show is equivalent to a certain rational map on CP^d being a birational isomorphism. Lastly, we establish the connection between linear presision for toric surface patches and maximum likelihood degree for discrete exponential families in algebraic statistics, and show how iterative proportional fitting may be used to compute toric patches.
We use stratified Morse theory for a manifold with corners to give a new bound for the sum of the Betti numbers of a hypersurface in R^n_> defined by a polynomial with n+l+1 terms.
We show that general isotropic flags for odd-orthogonal and symplectic groups are general for Schubert calculus on the classical Grassmannian in that Schubert cells defined by such flags meet transversally. This strengthens a result of Belkale and Kumar in arXiv:0708.0398.
Numerical homotopy continuation of solutions to polynomial equations is the foundation for numerical algebraic geometry, whose development has been driven by applications of mathematics. We use numerical homotopy continuation to investigate the problem in pure mathematics of determining Galois groups in the Schubert calculus. For example, we show by direct computation that the Galois group of the Schubert problem of 3-planes in C^8 meeting 15 fixed 5-planes non-trivially is the full symmetric group S_6006.
We give a combinatorial rule for computing intersection numbers on a flag manifold which come from products of Schubert classes pulled back from Grassmannian projections. This rule generalizes the known rule for Grassmannians.
This is a tutorial on some aspects of toric varieties related to their potential use in geometric modeling. We discuss projective toric varieties and their ideals, as well as real toric varieties and the algebraic moment map. In particular, we explain the relation between linear precision and the algebraic moment map. This builds on the introduction to toric varieties by David Cox: What is a Toric Variety? at http://www.cs.amherst.edu/~dac/lectures/tutorial.ps
We study the facial structure and Carathéodory number of the convex hull of an orbit of the group of rotations in R^3 acting on the space of pairs of anisotropic symmetric 3\times 3 tensors. This is motivated by the problem of determining the structure of some proteins in aqueous solution.
We discuss and give elementary proofs of results of Brion and of Lawrence-Varchenko on the lattice-point enumerator generating functions for polytopes and cones. This largely expository note contains a new proof of Brion's Formula using irrational decompositions, and a generalization of the Lawrence-Varchenko formula.
We use Gale duality for polynomial complete intersections and adapt the proof of the fewnomial bound for positive solutions to obtain the bound (e^4+3) 2^(k choose 2) n^k/4 for the number of non-zero real solutions to a system of n polynomials in n variables having n+k+1 monomials whose exponent vectors generate a subgroup of Z^n of odd index. This bound exceeds the bound for positive solutions only by the constant factor (e^4+3)/(e^2+3) and it is asymptotically sharp for k fixed and n large.
We show that every complete intersection of Laurent polynomials in an algebraic torus is isomorphic to a complete intersection of master functions in the complement of a hyperplane arrangement, and vice versa. We call this association Gale duality because the exponents of the monomials in the polynomials annihilate the weights of the master functions. We use Gale duality to give a Kouchnirenko theorem for the number of solutions to a system of master functions and to compute some topological invariants of generic master function complete intersections.