arXiv subjects

Karola Mészáros

Publications and source records attributed to Karola Mészáros.

32 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

Gelfand-Tsetlin polytopes: a story of flow and order polytopes

Gelfand-Tsetlin polytopes are prominent objects in algebraic combinatorics. The number of integer points of the Gelfand-Tsetlin polytope $\mathrm{GT}(λ)$ is equal to the dimension of the corresponding irreducible representation of $GL(n)$. It is well-known that the Gelfand-Tsetlin polytope is a marked order polytope; the authors have recently shown it to be a flow polytope. In this paper, we draw corollaries from this result and establish a general theory connecting marked order polytopes and flow polytopes.

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arXiv2019

On flow polytopes, order polytopes, and certain faces of the alternating sign matrix polytope

In this paper we study an alternating sign matrix analogue of the Chan-Robbins-Yuen polytope, which we call the ASM-CRY polytope. We show that this polytope has Catalan many vertices and its volume is equal to the number of standard Young tableaux of staircase shape; we also determine its Ehrhart polynomial. We achieve the previous by proving that the members of a family of faces of the alternating sign matrix polytope which includes ASM-CRY are both order and flow polytopes. Inspired by the above results, we relate three established triangulations of order and flow polytopes, namely Stanley's triangulation of order polytopes, the Postnikov-Stanley triangulation of flow polytopes and the Danilov-Karzanov-Koshevoy triangulation of flow polytopes. We show that when a graph $G$ is a planar graph, in which case the flow polytope $F_G$ is also an order polytope, Stanley's triangulation of this order polytope is one of the Danilov-Karzanov-Koshevoy triangulations of $F_G$. Moreover, for a general graph $G$ we show that the set of Danilov-Karzanov-Koshevoy triangulations of $F_G$ is a subset of the set of Postnikov-Stanley triangulations of $F_G$. We also describe explicit bijections between the combinatorial objects labeling the simplices in the above triangulations.

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arXiv2018

Volumes and Ehrhart polynomials of flow polytopes

The Lidskii formula for the type $A_n$ root system expresses the volume and Ehrhart polynomial of the flow polytope of the complete graph with nonnegative integer netflows in terms of Kostant partition functions. For every integer polytope the volume is the leading coefficient of the Ehrhart polynomial. The beauty of the Lidskii formula is the revelation that for these polytopes its Ehrhart polynomial function can be deduced from its volume function! Baldoni and Vergne generalized Lidskii's result for flow polytopes of arbitrary graphs $G$ and nonnegative integer netflows. While their formulas are combinatorial in nature, their proofs are based on residue computations. In this paper we construct canonical polytopal subdivisions of flow polytopes which we use to prove the Baldoni-Vergne-Lidskii formulas. In contrast with the original computational proof of these formulas, our proof reveal their geometry and combinatorics. We conclude by exhibiting enumerative properties of the Lidskii formulas via our canonical polytopal subdivisions.

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arXiv2017

Flow polytopes of partitions

Recent progress on flow polytopes indicates many interesting families with product formulas for their volume. These product formulas are all proved using analytic techniques. Our work breaks from this pattern. We define a family of closely related flow polytopes $\mathcal{F}_{(λ, {\bf a})}$ for each partition shape $λ$ and netflow vector ${\bf a}\in \mathbb{Z}^n_{> 0}$. In each such family, we prove that there is a polytope (the limiting one in a sense) which is a product of scaled simplices, explaining their product volumes. We also show that the combinatorial type of all polytopes in a fixed family $\mathcal{F}_{(λ, {\bf a})}$ is the same. When $λ$ is a staircase shape and ${\bf a}$ is the all ones vector the latter result specializes to a theorem of the first author with Morales and Rhoades, which shows that the combinatorial type of the Tesler polytope is a product of simplices.

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arXiv2017

Subword complexes via triangulations of root polytopes

Subword complexes are simplicial complexes introduced by Knutson and Miller to illustrate the combinatorics of Schubert polynomials and determinantal ideals. They proved that any subword complex is homeomorphic to a ball or a sphere and asked about their geometric realizations. We show that a family of subword complexes can be realized geometrically via regular triangulations of root polytopes. This implies that a family of $β$-Grothendieck polynomials are special cases of reduced forms in the subdivision algebra of root polytopes. We can also write the volume and Ehrhart series of root polytopes in terms of $β$-Grothendieck polynomials.

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arXiv2017

Schubert polynomials as integer point transforms of generalized permutahedra

We show that the dual character of the flagged Weyl module of any diagram is a positively weighted integer point transform of a generalized permutahedron. In particular, Schubert and key polynomials are positively weighted integer point transforms of generalized permutahedra. This implies several recent conjectures of Monical, Tokcan and Yong.

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arXiv2017

The polytope of Tesler matrices

We introduce the Tesler polytope Tes_n(a_1,a_2,...,a_n), whose integer points are the Tesler matrices of size n with nonnegative integer hook sums a_1,a_2,...,a_n. We show that Tes_n(a) is a flow polytope and therefore the number of Tesler matrices is counted by the type A_n Kostant partition function evaluated at (a_1,a_2,...,a_n,-a_1-...-a_n). We describe the faces of this polytope in terms of "Tesler tableaux" and characterize when the polytope is simple. We prove that the h-vector of Tes_n(a) when all a_i>0 is given by the Mahonian numbers and calculate the volume of Tes_n(1,1,...,1) to be a product of consecutive Catalan numbers multiplied by the number of standard Young tableaux of staircase shape.

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arXiv2017

Volumes of generalized Chan-Robbins-Yuen polytopes

The normalized volume of the Chan-Robbins-Yuen polytope ($CRY_n$) is the product of consecutive Catalan numbers. The polytope $CRY_n$ has captivated combinatorial audiences for over a decade, as there is no combinatorial proof for its volume formula. In their quest to understand $CRY_n$ better, the third author and Morales introduced two natural generalizations of it and conjectured that their volumes are certain powers of $2$ multiplied by a product of consecutive Catalan numbers. Zeilberger proved one of these conjectures. In this paper we present proofs of both conjectures.

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arXiv2016

Flow polytopes with Catalan volumes

The Chan-Robbins-Yuen polytope can be thought of as the flow polytope of the complete graph with netflow vector $(1, 0, \ldots, 0, -1)$. The normalized volume of the Chan-Robbins-Yuen polytope equals the product of consecutive Catalan numbers, yet there is no combinatorial proof of this fact. We consider a natural generalization of this polytope, namely, the flow polytope of the complete graph with netflow vector $(1,1, 0, \ldots, 0, -2)$. We show that the volume of this polytope is a certain power of $2$ times the product of consecutive Catalan numbers. Our proof uses constant term identities and further deepens the combinatorial mystery of why these numbers appear. In addition we introduce two more families of flow polytopes whose volumes are given by product formulas.

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arXiv2016

Flow polytopes and the space of diagonal harmonics

A result of Haglund implies that the $(q,t)$-bigraded Hilbert series of the space of diagonal harmonics is a $(q,t)$-Ehrhart function of the flow polytope of a complete graph with netflow vector $(-n, 1, \dots, 1)$. We study the $(q,t)$-Ehrhart functions of flow polytopes of threshold graphs with arbitrary netflow vectors. Our results generalize previously known specializations of the mentioned bigraded Hilbert series at $t=1$, $0$, and $q^{-1}$. As a corollary to our results, we obtain a proof of a conjecture of Armstrong, Garsia, Haglund, Rhoades and Sagan about the $(q, q^{-1})$-Ehrhart function of the flow polytope of a complete graph with an arbitrary netflow vector.

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arXiv2015

Pipe dream complexes and triangulations of root polytopes belong together

In this paper we show that the pipe dream complex associated to the permutation 1n(n-1)...2 can be geometrically realized as a triangulation of the vertex figure of a root polytope. Leading up to this result we show that the Grothendieck polynomial specializes to the h-polynomial of the corresponding pipe dream complex, which in certain cases equals the h-polynomial of canonical triangulations of root (and flow) polytopes, which in turn equals a specialization of the reduced form of a monomial in the subdivision algebra of root (and flow) polytopes. Thus, we connect Grothendieck polynomials to reduced forms in subdivision algebras and root (and flow) polytopes. We also show that root polytopes can be seen as projections of flow polytopes, explaining that these families of polytopes possess the same subdivision algebra.

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arXiv2015

h-Polynomials via Reduced Forms

The flow polytope $\mathcal{F}_{\widetilde{G}}$ is the set of nonnegative unit flows on the graph $\widetilde{G}$. The subdivision algebra of flow polytopes prescribes a way to dissect a flow polytope $\mathcal{F}_{\widetilde{G}}$ into simplices. Such a dissection is encoded by the terms of the so called reduced form of the monomial $\prod_{(i,j)\in E(G)}x_{ij}$. We prove that we can use the subdivision algebra of flow polytopes to construct not only dissections, but also regular flag triangulations of flow polytopes. We prove that reduced forms in the subdivision algebra are generalizations of $h$-polynomials of the triangulations of flow polytopes. We deduce several corollaries of the above results, most notably proving certain cases of a conjecture of Kirillov about the nonnegativity of reduced forms in the noncommutative quasi-classical Yang-Baxter algebra.

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arXiv2015

h-Polynomials of Reduction Trees

Reduction trees are a way of encoding a substitution procedure dictated by the relations of an algebra. We use reduction trees in the subdivision algebra to construct canonical triangulations of flow polytopes which are shellable. We explain how a shelling of the canonical triangulation can be read off from the corresponding reduction tree in the subdivision algebra. We then introduce the notion of shellable reduction trees in the subdivision and related algebras and define h-polynomials of reduction trees. In the case of the subdivision algebra, the h-polynomials of the canonical triangulations of flow polytopes equal the h-polynomials of the corresponding reduction trees, which motivated our definition. We show that the reduced forms in various algebras, which can be read off from the leaves of the reduction trees, specialize to the shifted h-polynomials of the corresponding reduction trees. This yields a technique for proving nonnegativity properties of reduced forms. As a corollary we settle a conjecture of A.N. Kirillov.

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arXiv2014

Subalgebras of the Fomin-Kirillov algebra

The Fomin-Kirillov algebra $\mathcal E_n$ is a noncommutative quadratic algebra with a generator for every edge of the complete graph on $n$ vertices. For any graph $G$ on $n$ vertices, we define $\mathcal E_G$ to be the subalgebra of $\mathcal E_n$ generated by the edges of $G$. We show that these algebras have many parallels with Coxeter groups and their nil-Coxeter algebras: for instance, $\mathcal E_G$ is a free $\mathcal E_H$-module for any $H\subseteq G$, and if $\mathcal E_G$ is finite-dimensional, then its Hilbert series has symmetric coefficients. We determine explicit monomial bases and Hilbert series for $\mathcal E_G$ when $G$ is a simply-laced finite Dynkin diagram or a cycle, in particular showing that $\mathcal E_G$ is finite-dimensional in these cases. We also present conjectures for the Hilbert series of $\mathcal E_{\tilde{D}_n}$, $\mathcal E_{\tilde{E}_6}$, and $\mathcal E_{\tilde{E}_7}$, as well as for which graphs $G$ on six vertices $\mathcal E_G$ is finite-dimensional.

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