This paper defines and studies permutation representations on the equivariant cohomology of Schubert varieties, as representations both over C and over C[t_1, t_2,...,t_n]. We show these group actions are the same as an action of simple transpositions studied geometrically by M. Brion, and give topological meaning to the divided difference operators studied by Berstein-Gelfand-Gelfand, Demazure, Kostant-Kumar, and others. We analyze these representations using the combinatorial approach to equivariant cohomology introduced by Goresky-Kottwitz-MacPherson. We find that each permutation representation on equivariant cohomology produces a representation on ordinary cohomology that is trivial, though the equivariant representation is not.
The generalized commuting and isospectral commuting varieties of a reductive Lie algebra have been introduced in a preceding article. In this note, it is proved that their normalizations are Gorenstein with rational singularities. Moreover, their canonical modules are free of rank 1. In particular, the usual commuting variety is Gorenstein with rational singularities and its canonical module is free of rank 1.
Let $G$ be a connected reductive algebraic group over an algebraically closed field $k$, and assume that the characteristic of $k$ is zero or a pretty good prime for $G$. Let $P$ be a parabolic subgroup of $G$ and let $mathfrak p$ be the Lie algebra of $P$. We consider the commuting variety $mathcal C(mathfrak p) = {(X,Y) in mathfrak p times mathfrak p mid [X,Y] = 0}$. Our main theorem gives a necessary and sufficient condition for irreducibility of $mathcal C(mathfrak p)$ in terms of the modality of the adjoint action of $P$ on the nilpotent variety of $mathfrak p$. As a consequence, for the case $P = B$ a Borel subgroup of $G$, we give a classification of when $mathcal C(mathfrak b)$ is irreducible; this builds on a partial classification given by Keeton. Further, in cases where $mathcal C(mathfrak p)$ is irreducible, we consider whether $mathcal C(mathfrak p)$ is a normal variety. In particular, this leads to a classification of when $mathcal C(mathfrak b)$ is normal.
We present a conjecture generalizing the Cauchy formula for Macdonald polynomials. This conjecture encodes the mixed Hodge polynomials of the character varieties of representations of the fundamental group of a Riemann surface of genus g to GL_n(C) with fixed generic semi-simple conjugacy classes at k punctures. Using the character table of GL_n(F_q) we calculate the E-polynomial of these character varieties and confirm that it is as predicted by our main conjecture. Then, using the character table of gl_n(F_q), we calculate the E-polynomial of certain associated comet-shaped quiver varieties, the additive analogues of our character variety, and find that it is the pure part of our conjectured mixed Hodge polynomial. Finally, we observe that the pure part of our conjectured mixed Hodge polynomial also equals certain multiplicities in the tensor product of irreducible representations of GL_n(F_q). This implies a curious connection between the representation theory of GL_n(F_q) and Kac-Moody algebras associated with comet-shaped, typically wild, quivers.
We study connections between the topology of generic character varieties of fundamental groups of punctured Riemann surfaces, Macdonald polynomials, quiver representations, Hilbert schemes on surfaces, modular forms and multiplicities in tensor products of irreducible characters of finite general linear groups.