Skip to main content
Log in

A Littlewood–Richardson rule for two-step flag varieties

  • Published:
Inventiones mathematicae Aims and scope

Abstract

This paper studies the geometry of one-parameter specializations of subvarieties of Grassmannians and two-step flag varieties. As a consequence, we obtain a positive, geometric rule for expressing the structure constants of the cohomology of two-step flag varieties in terms of their Schubert basis. A corollary is a positive, geometric rule for computing the structure constants of the small quantum cohomology of Grassmannians. We also obtain a positive, geometric rule for computing the classes of subvarieties of Grassmannians that arise as the projection of the intersection of two Schubert varieties in a partial flag variety. These rules have numerous applications to geometry, representation theory and the theory of symmetric functions.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Bergeron, N., Sottile, F.: Schubert polynomials, the Bruhat order, and the geometry of flag manifolds. Duke Math. J. 95, 373–423 (1998)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  2. Bernstein, I.N., Gelfand, I.M., Gelfand, S.I.: Schubert cells and the cohomology of the spaces G/P. Russ. Math. Surv. 28(3), 1–26 (1973)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  3. Bertram, A.: Quantum Schubert calculus. Adv. Math. 128, 289–305 (1997)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  4. Buch, A.S.: Quantum cohomology of Grassmannians. Compos. Math. 137, 227–235 (2003)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  5. Buch, A.S., Kresch, A., Tamvakis, H.: Gromov–Witten invariants on Grassmannians. J. Am. Math. Soc. 16, 901–915 (2003)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  6. Coskun, I.: Degenerations of surface scrolls and the Gromov–Witten invariants of Grassmannians. J. Algebr. Geom. 15, 223–284 (2006)

    MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  7. Coskun, I.: A Littlewood–Richardson rule for partial flag varieties. Preprint

  8. Coskun, I., Vakil, R.: Geometric positivity in the cohomology of homogeneous spaces and generalized Schubert calculus. To appear in Proceedings of the Summer Institute in Algebraic Geometry, Seattle 2005

  9. Fulton, W.: Young Tableaux. Lond. Math. Soc. Stud. Texts, vol. 35. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1997)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  10. Fulton, W.: Intersection Theory, 2nd edn. Ergeb. Math. Grenzgeb., 3. Folge, vol. 2. Springer, Berlin (1998)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  11. Fulton, W., Pandharipande, R.: Notes on stable maps and quantum cohomology. In: Algebraic Geometry – Santa Cruz 1995. Proc. Sympos. Pure Math., vol. 62, pp. 45–96. Am. Math. Soc., Providence, RI (1997)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Fulton, W., Pragacz, P.: Schubert varieties and degeneracy loci. Lect. Notes Math., vol. 1689. Springer, Berlin (1998)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  13. Griffiths, P., Harris, J.: Principles of Algebraic Geometry. Wiley Interscience, New York (1978)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  14. Kleiman, S.L.: The transversality of a general translate. Compos. Math. 28, 287–297 (1974)

    MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  15. Knutson, A., Tao, T.: Puzzles and (equivariant) cohomology of Grassmannians. Duke Math. J. 119, 221–260 (2003)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  16. Knutson, A., Tao, T., Woodward, C.: The honeycomb model of GL n (ℂ) tensor products. II. Puzzles determine facets of the Littlewood–Richardson cone. J. Am. Math. Soc. 17, 19–48 (2004) (electronic)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  17. Kogan, M.: RC-graphs and a generalized Littlewood–Richardson rule. Int. Math. Res. Not. 2001(15), 765–782 (2001)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  18. Vakil, R.: A geometric Littlewood–Richardson rule. Ann. Math. (2) 164, 371–421 (2006) (Appendix A written with A. Knutson)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  19. Vakil, R.: Schubert induction. Ann. Math. (2) 164, 489–512 (2006)

    MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Izzet Coskun.

Additional information

Mathematics Subject Classification (2000)

Primary 14M15, 14N35, 32M10

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Coskun, I. A Littlewood–Richardson rule for two-step flag varieties. Invent. math. 176, 325–395 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00222-008-0165-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00222-008-0165-3

Keywords

Navigation