We present a list of ``local axioms and an explicit combinatorial construction for the regular $B_2$-crystals (crystal graphs of highest weight integrable modules over $U_q(sp_4)$). Also a new combinatorial model for these crystals is developed.
We give a new characterization of Littlewood-Richardson-Stembridge tableaux for Schur $P$-functions by using the theory of $mf{q}(n)$-crystals. We also give alternate proofs of the Schur $P$-expansion of a skew Schur function due to Ardila and Serrano, and the Schur expansion of a Schur $P$-function due to Stembridge using the associated crystal structures.
Lascoux stated that the type A Kostka-Foulkes polynomials K_{lambda,mu}(t) expand positively in terms of so-called atomic polynomials. For any semisimple Lie algebra, the former polynomial is a t-analogue of the multiplicity of the dominant weight mu in the irreducible representation of highest weight lambda. We formulate the atomic decomposition in arbitrary type, and view it as a strengthening of the monotonicity of K_{lambda,mu}(t). We also define a combinatorial version of the atomic decomposition, as a decomposition of a modified crystal graph. We prove that this stronger version holds in type A (which provides a new, conceptual approach to Lascouxs statement), in types B, C, and D in a stable range for t=1, as well as in some other cases, while we conjecture that it holds more generally. Another conjecture stemming from our work leads to an efficient computation of K_{lambda,mu}(t). We also give a geometric interpretation.
The crystals for a finite-dimensional complex reductive Lie algebra $mathfrak{g}$ encode the structure of its representations, yet can also reveal surprising new structure of their own. We study the cactus group $C_{mathfrak{g}}$, constructed using the Dynkin diagram of $mathfrak{g}$, and its combinatorial action on any $mathfrak{g}$-crystal via Sch{u}tzenberger involutions. We compare this action with that of the Berenstein-Kirillov group on Gelfand-Tsetlin patterns. Henriques and Kamnitzer define an action of $C_n=C_{mathfrak{gl}_n}$ on $n$-tensor products of $mathfrak{g}$-crystals, for any $mathfrak{g}$ as above. We discuss the crystal corresponding to the $mathfrak{gl}_n times mathfrak{gl}_m$-representation $Lambda^N(mathbb{C}^n otimes mathbb{C}^m),$ derive skew Howe duality on the crystal level and show that the two types of cactus group actions agree in this setting. A future application of this result is discussed in studying two families of maximal commutative subalgebras of the universal enveloping algebra, the shift of argument and Gaudin algebras, where an algebraically constructed monodromy action matches that of the cactus group.
We give a recursive method for computing all values of a basis of Whittaker functions for unramified principal series invariant under an Iwahori or parahoric subgroup of a split reductive group $G$ over a nonarchimedean local field $F$. Structures in the proof have surprising analogies to features of certain solvable lattice models. In the case $G=mathrm{GL}_r$ we show that there exist solvable lattice models whose partition functions give precisely all of these values. Here `solvable means that the models have a family of Yang-Baxter equations which imply, among other things, that their partition functions satisfy the same recursions as those for Iwahori or parahoric Whittaker functions. The R-matrices for these Yang-Baxter equations come from a Drinfeld twist of the quantum group $U_q(widehat{mathfrak{gl}}(r|1))$, which we then connect to the standard intertwining operators on the unramified principal series. We use our results to connect Iwahori and parahoric Whittaker functions to variations of Macdonald polynomials.
Fix a semisimple Lie algebra g. Gaudin algebras are commutative algebras acting on tensor product multiplicity spaces for g-representations. These algebras depend on a parameter which is a point in the Deligne-Mumford moduli space of marked stable genus 0 curves. When the parameter is real, then the Gaudin algebra acts with simple spectrum on the tensor product multiplicity space and gives us a basis of eigenvectors. In this paper, we study the monodromy of these eigenvectors as the parameter varies within the real locus; this gives an action of the fundamental group of this moduli space, which is called the cactus group. We prove a conjecture of Etingof which states that the monodromy of eigenvectors for Gaudin algebras agrees with the action of the cactus group on tensor products of g-crystals. In fact, we prove that the coboundary category of normal g-crystals can be reconstructed using the coverings of the moduli spaces. Our main tool is the construction of a crystal structure on the set of eigenvectors for shift of argument algebras, another family of commutative algebras which act on any irreducible g-representation. We also prove that the monodromy of such eigenvectors is given by the internal cactus group action on g-crystals.