arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Frank Sottile.
This short article, which appeared in the MSRI Fall 2004 newletter, is intended for a general mathematical audience. It describes some mathematical themes from the Winter 2004 program at MSRI in topological aspects of real algebraic geometry in the context of an interpolation problem involving real rational plane curves.
The Shapiro conjecture in the real Schubert calculus fails to hold for flag manifolds, but in a very interesting way. In this extended abstract, we give a refinement of that conjecture for the flag manifold and present massive experimentation (over 12 GigaHertz-Years) that supports our refined conjecture. We also establish relationships between different cases of the conjecture and describe some new phenomena uncovered in this experimentation.
Let d_{k,n} and #_{k,n} denote the dimension and the degree of the Grassmannian G_{k,n} of k-planes in projective n-space, respectively. For each k between 1 and n-2 there are 2^{d_{k,n}} \cdot #_{k,n} (a priori complex) k-planes in P^n tangent to d_{k,n} general quadratic hypersurfaces in P^n. We show that this class of enumerative problem is fully real, i.e., for each k between 1 and n-2 there exists a configuration of d_{k,n} real quadrics in (affine) real space R^n so that all the mutually tangent k-flats are real.
In 1940, Luis Santaló proved a Helly-type theorem for line transversals to boxes in R^d. An analysis of his proof reveals a convexity structure for ascending lines in R^d that is isomorphic to the ordinary notion of convexity in a convex subset of R^{2d-2}. This isomorphism is through a Cremona transformation on the Grassmannian of lines in P^d, which enables a precise description of the convex hull and affine span of up to d ascending lines: the lines in such an affine span turn out to be the rulings of certain classical determinantal varieties. Finally, we relate Cremona convexity to a new convexity structure that we call frame convexity, which extends to arbitrary-dimensional flats.
David Hilbert proved that a non-negative real quartic form f(x,y,z) is the sum of three squares of quadratic forms. We give a new proof which shows that if the complex plane curve Q defined by f is smooth, then f has exactly 8 such representations, up to equivalence. They correspond to those real 2-torsion points of the Jacobian of Q which are not represented by a conjugation-invariant divisor on Q.
We give an explicit natural identification between the quiver coefficients of Buch and Fulton, decomposition coefficients for Schubert polynomials, and the Schubert structure constants for flag manifolds. This is also achieved in K-theory where we give a direct argument that the decomposition coefficients have alternating signs, based on a theorem of Brion, which then implies that the quiver coefficients have alternating signs. Our identification shows that known combinatorial formulas for the latter two numbers give formulas for the quiver coefficients.
A combinatorial Hopf algebra is a graded connected Hopf algebra over a field $F$ equipped with a character (multiplicative linear functional) $ζ:H\to F$. We show that the terminal object in the category of combinatorial Hopf algebras is the algebra $QSym$ of quasi-symmetric functions; this explains the ubiquity of quasi-symmetric functions as generating functions in combinatorics. We illustrate this with several examples. We prove that every character decomposes uniquely as a product of an even character and an odd character. Correspondingly, every combinatorial Hopf algebra $(H,ζ)$ possesses two canonical Hopf subalgebras on which the character $ζ$ is even (respectively, odd). The odd subalgebra is defined by certain canonical relations which we call the generalized Dehn-Sommerville relations. We show that, for $H=QSym$, the generalized Dehn-Sommerville relations are the Bayer-Billera relations and the odd subalgebra is the peak Hopf algebra of Stembridge. We prove that $QSym$ is the product (in the categorical sense) of its even and odd Hopf subalgebras. We also calculate the odd subalgebras of various related combinatorial Hopf algebras: the Malvenuto-Reutenauer Hopf algebra of permutations, the Loday-Ronco Hopf algebra of planar binary trees, the Hopf algebras of symmetric functions and of non-commutative symmetric functions.
We introduce and begin the topological study of real rational plane curves, all of whose inflection points are real. The existence of such curves is a corollary of results in the real Schubert calculus, and their study has consequences for the important Shapiro and Shapiro conjecture in the real Schubert calculus. We establish restrictions on the number of real nodes of such curves and construct curves realizing the extreme numbers of real nodes. These constructions imply the existence of real solutions to some problems in the Schubert calculus. We conclude with a discussion of maximally inflected curves of low degree.
We completely describe the structure of the connected components of transversals to a collection of n line segments in R^3. We show that n>2 arbitrary line segments in R^3 admit 0, 1, ..., n or infinitely many line transversals. In the latter case, the transversals form up to n connected components.
We give a characteristic-free proof that general codimension-1 Schubert varieties meet transversally in a Grassmannian and in some related varieties. Thus the corresponding intersection numbers computed in the Chow (and quantum Chow) rings of these varieties are enumerative in all characteristics. We show that known transversality results do not apply to these enumerative problems, emphasizing the need for additional theoretical work on transversality. The method of proof also strengthens some results in real enumerative geometry.
Enumerative Geometry is concerned with the number of solutions to a structured system of polynomial equations, when the structure comes from geometry. Enumerative real algebraic geometry studies real solutions to such systems, particularly a priori information on their number. Recent results in this area have, often as not, uncovered new and unexpected phenomena, and it is far from clear what to expect in general. Nevertheless, some themes are emerging. This comprehensive article describe the current state of knowledge, indicating these themes, and suggests lines of future research. In particular, it compares the state of knowledge in Enumerative Real Algebraic Geometry with what is known about real solutions to systems of sparse polynomials.
We solve the following geometric problem, which arises in several three-dimensional applications in computational geometry: For which arrangements of two lines and two spheres in R^3 are there infinitely many lines simultaneously transversal to the two lines and tangent to the two spheres? We also treat a generalization of this problem to projective quadrics: Replacing the spheres in R^3 by quadrics in projective space P^3, and fixing the lines and one general quadric, we give the following complete geometric description of the set of (second) quadrics for which the 2 lines and 2 quadrics have infinitely many transversals and tangents: In the nine-dimensional projective space P^9 of quadrics, this is a curve of degree 24 consisting of 12 plane conics, a remarkably reducible variety.
We define skew Schubert polynomials to be normal form (polynomial) representatives of certain classes in the cohomology of a flag manifold. We show that this definition extends a recent construction of Schubert polynomials due to Bergeron and Sottile in terms of certain increasing labeled chains in Bruhat order of the symmetric group. These skew Schubert polynomials expand in the basis of Schubert polynomials with nonnegative integer coefficients that are precisely the structure constants of the cohomology of the complex flag variety with respect to its basis of Schubert classes. We rederive the construction of Bergeron and Sottile in a purely combinatorial way, relating it to the construction of Schubert polynomials in terms of rc-graphs.
We show that there are 3 \cdot 2^(n-1) complex common tangent lines to 2n-2 general spheres in R^n and that there is a choice of spheres with all common tangents real.
We analyze the structure of the Malvenuto-Reutenauer Hopf algebra of permutations in detail. We give explicit formulas for its antipode, prove that it is a cofree coalgebra, determine its primitive elements and its coradical filtration and show that it decomposes as a crossed product over the Hopf algebra of quasi-symmetric functions. We also describe the structure constants of the multiplication as a certain number of facets of the permutahedron. Our results reveal a close relationship between the structure of this Hopf algebra and the weak order on the symmetric groups.
We briefly describe each of the four topics: Schubert Calculus, Schubert Cell, Schubert Cycle, and Schubert Polynomials.
We discuss a particular problem of enumerating rational curves on a Grassmannian from several perspectives, including systems theory, real enumerative geometry, and symbolic computation. We also present a new transversality result, showing this problem is enumerative in all characteristics. While it is well-known how this enumerative problem arose in mathematical physics and also its importance to the development of quantum cohomology, it is less known how it arose independently in mathematical systems theory. We describe this second story.
We study four operations defined on pairs of tableaux. Algorithms for the first three involve the familiar procedures of jeu de taquin, row insertion, and column insertion. The fourth operation, hopscotch, is new, although specialised versions have appeared previously. Like the other three operations, this new operation may be computed with a set of local rules in a growth diagram, and it preserves Knuth equivalence class. Each of these four operations gives rise to an a priori distinct theory of dual equivalence. We show that these four theories coincide. The four operations are linked via the involutive tableau operations of complementation and conjugation.