Poincaré-Birkhoff-Witt bases and Khovanov-Lauda-Rouquier algebras (Q2444656)

Khovanov-Lauda-Rouquier algebras \(R_\beta\) provide the right environment for categorification of upper and lower global bases of the positive half \(U^+\) of a quantum group. They are a series of graded algebras associated to a symmetric Kac-Moody algebra, indexed by the positive part of the root lattice. The transition matrix between upper and lower canonical bases is obtained in terms of multiplicities of shifts of simple modules in projective ones. This paper contains three very nice results. The first one is an affirmative answer to a problem posed by Kashiwara: these algebras have finite global dimension. This was known to hold only in type A. The second result is a construction of graded \(R_\beta\)-modules categorifying PBW-bases: they satisfy orthogonality relations that go down to orthogonality relations for Lusztig's inner form. Their definition depends on the choice of a reduced decomposition of the longest element in the Weyl group. These modules are used to obtain the third result, which is an affirmative answer to a question posed by Lusztig: the entries of the transition matrix from the canonical basis to the PBW basis of \(U^+\) are positive. This fact was known only for reduced decompositions of the longest element of the Weyl group that are adapted to an orientation of the Coxeter graph [\textit{G. Lusztig}, J. Am. Math. Soc. 3, No. 2, 447--498 (1990; Zbl 0703.17008)]. Results similar to those in this paper were obtained independently, by different methods, in [\textit{J. Brundan} et al., Duke Math. J. 163, No. 7, 1353--1404 (2014; Zbl 1314.16005)] and [\textit{P. J. McNamara}, ``Finite dimensional representations of Khovanov-Lauda-Rouquier algebras. I: Finite type'', \url{arXiv:1207.5860}], where the multiply-laced case is also covered.