Orbits in \((\mathbb{P}^r)^n\) and equivariant quantum cohomology (Q2287943)

The paper studies a geometric setting closely related to the combinatorics of matroids. Namely, consider the \(G=\mathrm{GL}_{r+1}(C)\) action on the product \(M=(\mathbb P^r)^n\). An element of \(M\), a point configuration in a projective space, determines a matroid via the dimensions of the spans of subsets. This matroid is invariant under the \(G\)-action. Various relations between the geometry of \(G\)-orbits and the combinatorics of the matroid are studied in the literature. The main result of the present paper is the calculation of the equivariant Chow classes of the matrix closures -- using the associated matroid. The authors' argument starts with a degeneration argument, reducing the general case to a special one. Then they prove an iterative method -- using matroid concepts -- to calculate the special ones. Along the way a beautiful coincidence is revealed: a step of the iteration turns out to be the same as the equivariant quantum product on \(\mathbb P^r\). This is a novel connection between equivariant classes of point configurations and quantum cohomology. The authors present two consequences of their main result. The first one is the direct unraveling of the meaning of equivariant Chow class. This way results of the following types are obtained: how many linear spaces in \(\mathbb P^r\) intersect a given variety in a given point configuration. The second consequence is the definition, and a more-or-less explicit description, of an \(n\)-ary operation -- associated to every \(r\times n\) matrix -- on the equivariant quantum cohomology ring of the projective space \(\mathbb P^r\).