Positivity in \(T\)-equivariant \(K\)-theory of flag varieties associated to Kac-Moody groups (Q2012451)

In [Int. Math. Res. Not. 2008, Article ID rnn093, 43 p. (2008; Zbl 1185.14043)], \textit{W. Graham} and the author posed a conjecture concerning the structure constants in the Schubert basis for the \(T\)-equivariant \(K\)-group of a finite dimensional flag variety \(G/B\), where \(T\) is a maximal torus of \(G\) contained in \(B\) a Borel subgroup of \(G\). This conjecture was affirmatively solved by \textit{D. Anderson} et al. [J. Eur. Math. Soc. (JEMS) 13, No. 1, 57--84 (2011; Zbl 1213.19003)]. In this paper the author proves that this holds true for \(G\) not necessarily of finite type. Suppose that \(G\) is a symmetrizable Kac-Moody group over \(\mathbb{C}\) with the minimal Kac-Moody group \(G^{\text{min}}\subset G\). Let \(X=G^{\text{min}}/B\) and \(W\) be the Weyl group. Then for any \(w \in W\) we have a unique element \(\psi^w \in K_T^{\text{top}}(X)\) such that \(\{\psi^w\}_{w \in W}\) is a basis of \(K_T^{\text{top}}(X)\). If we write \[ \psi^u\cdot\psi^v=\sum_wp_{u, v}^w\psi^w \quad \text{for} \;p_{u, v}^w \in R(T), \] then the main result (Theorem 4.13) of this paper states that for any \(u, v,w \in W\) \[ (-1)^{\ell(u)+\ell(v)+\ell(w)}p_{u, v}^w \in {\mathbb{Z}}_+[e^{-\alpha_i}-1]^r_{i=1} \] where \(\{\alpha_1, \ldots, \alpha_r\}\) are the simple roots and \(\ell(w)\) denotes the length of \(w\). This has applications to \(K^{\text{top}}(X)\), \(H_T^\ast(X, \mathbb{C})\) and \(H^\ast(X, \mathbb{C})\); it establishes the positivity of the structure constants in the Schubert bases for these groups. The proof consists of two parts. First it is shown that \( p_{u, v}^w\) can be written \[ p_{u, v}^w=\sum_{\mathbf j}(-1)^{|{\mathbf j}|}c_{u, v}^w({\mathbf j})(e^{-\alpha_1}-1)^{j_1} \ldots (e^{-\alpha_r}-1)^{j_r} \quad \text{for} \;c_{u, v}^w({\mathbf j})\in\mathbb{Z} \] where \(|{\mathbf j}|=\sum_{i=1}^rj_i\); and second it is shown that its coefficients \(c_{u, v}^w({\mathbf j})\) satisfy that \[ (-1)^{\ell(w)-\ell(u)-\ell(v)+|{\mathbf j}|}c_{u, v}^w({\mathbf j})\in\mathbb{Z}_+. \] The result above is certainly an immediate consequence of these two facts. Let \({\mathcal O}_{X_w}\) denote the structure sheaf of \(X_w=\overline{BwB/B} \subset X\). This defines an element \([{\mathcal O}_{X_w}] \in K_0^T(X)\) and then the set \(\{[{\mathcal O}_{X_v}]\}_{w\in W}\) forms a basis of \(K_0^T(X)\) over \(R(T)\). If we write \(\Delta_\ast [{\mathcal O}_{X_w}]=\sum_{u, v} q_{u, v}^w[{\mathcal O}_{X_u}] \otimes [{\mathcal O}_{X_v}]\) for the coproduct in \(K_0^T(X)\), then we have \(q_{u, v}^w=p_{u, v}^w\). Roughly speaking, by applying this to the definition formula of \(c_{u, v}^w({\mathbf j})\) the first fact is obtained. However, in order to prove the second fact, we require a large number of arguments about \({\mathcal O}_{X_w}\)s in the last five sections (Sections 5--9).