Alg/Comb/Geom seminar
Spring 2017

Finding a combinatorial rule for the Schubert structure constants in the K-theory of flag varieties is a long-standing problem. The Grothendieck polynomials of Lascoux and Schützenberger (1982) serve as polynomial representatives for K-theoretic Schubert classes, but no positive rule for their multiplication is known outside the Grassmannian case. We contribute a new basis for polynomials, give a positive combinatorial formula for the expansion of Grothendieck polynomials in these "glide polynomials", and provide a positive combinatorial Littlewood-Richardson rule for expanding a product of Grothendieck polynomials in the glide basis. A specialization of the glide basis recovers the fundamental slide polynomials of Assaf and Searles (2016), which play an analogous role with respect to the Chow ring of flag varieties. Additionally, the stable limits of another specialization of glide polynomials are Lam and Pylyavskyy's (2007) basis of multi-fundamental quasisymmetric functions, K-theoretic analogues of Gessel's (1984) fundamental quasisymmetric functions. Those glide polynomials that are themselves quasisymmetric are truncations of multi-fundamental quasisymmetric functions and form a basis of quasisymmetric polynomials. (Joint work with D. Searles).

Splines are a classical tool in analysis and applied math. Lou Billera initiated an algebraic approach to study them, using tools from homological and commutative algebra. In this talk, we'll describe what's known and some future directions.

TBA

Abstract TBA

Abstract TBA