Symmetric Functions, Schubert Polynomials, and Degeneracy Loci

Laurent Manivel

American Mathematical Soc., 2001 - Mathematics - 167 pages

This text grew out of an advanced course taught by the author at the Fourier Institute (Grenoble, France). It serves as an introduction to the combinatorics of symmetric functions, more precisely to Schur and Schubert polynomials. Also studied is the geometry of Grassmannians, flag varieties, and especially, their Schubert varieties. This book examines profound connections that unite these two subjects. The book is divided into three chapters. The first is devoted to symmetricfunctions and especially to Schur polynomials. These are polynomials with positive integer coefficients in which each of the monomials correspond to a Young tableau with the property of being ''semistandard''. The second chapter is devoted to Schubert polynomials, which were discovered by A. Lascoux andM.-P. Schutzenberger who deeply probed their combinatorial properties. It is shown, for example, that these polynomials support the subtle connections between problems of enumeration of reduced decompositions of permutations and the Littlewood-Richardson rule, a particularly efficacious version of which may be derived from these connections. The final chapter is geometric. It is devoted to Schubert varieties, subvarieties of Grassmannians, and flag varieties defined by certain incidenceconditions with fixed subspaces. This volume makes accessible a number of results, creating a solid stepping stone for scaling more ambitious heights in the area. The author's intent was to remain elementary: The first two chapters require no prior knowledge, the third chapter uses some rudimentary notionsof topology and algebraic geometry. For this reason, a comprehensive appendix on the topology of algebraic varieties is provided. This book is the English translation of a text previously published in French.

Contents

• Introduction: 1
• The Ring of Symmetric Functions: 7
• Schubert Polynomials: 57
• Schubert Varieties: 101
• A Brief Introduction to Singular Homology: 153
• Bibliography: 161

Popular passages

Page 162 - Standard monomial theory. In Proceedings of the Hyderabad Conference on Algebraic Groups (Hyderabad, 1989), pages 279-322, Madras, 1991.‎

Page 163 - New symmetric plane partition identities from invariant theory work of De Concini and Procesi.‎

Page 163 - Pragacz, Symmetric polynomials and divided differences in formulas of intersection theory, in: Parameter Spaces, Banach Center Publications, 36 (1996), 125-177 [PR] P.‎

Page 162 - Jacobi. De functionibus alternantibus earumque divisione per productum e differentiis elementorum conflatum. J.‎

Page 162 - G. Kempf and D. Laksov, The determinantal formula of Schubert calculus, Acta Math. 132 (1974), 153-162.‎

Bibliographic information

• Title: Symmetric Functions, Schubert Polynomials, and Degeneracy Loci; Issue 3 of Collection SMF.: Cours spécialisés; Cours spécialisés; Issue 6 of SMF/AMS Texts and Monographs, American Mathematical Society, ISSN 1525-2302; Volume 6 of SMF/AMS texts and monographs: Société Mathématique de France; Smf/Ams Texts and Monographs, Vol 6 and Cours Specialises Numero 3, 1998; Volume 6 of Société Mathématique de France
• Author: Laurent Manivel
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: American Mathematical Soc., 2001
• ISBN: 0821821547, 9780821821541
• Length: 167 pages
• Subjects: Mathematics / Geometry / Algebraic; Mathematics / Group Theory