Title: Flag varieties and algebraic combinatorics
| Speaker: | William Slofstra |
| Affiliation: | University of Waterloo |
| Room: | MC 5417 |
Abstract: There is a long history of connections between Lie theory and algebraic combinatorics, particularly in the study of flag varieties. Despite this long history, much of what we know in this area is focused on type A, the case containing the symmetric and general linear groups. Our current challenge is to extend what we know about type A to other finite types, as well as to more general settings, such as infinite Kac-Moody groups and Coxeter groups.
In this talk, I will give an overview of several recent results of this flavour, including the classification of smooth Schubert varieties via staircase diagrams (joint work with Ed Richmond), and the non-negativity of the coefficients of affine Kostka-Foulkes polynomials.