Flag varieties and the Yang-Baxter equation (Q1357227)

The authors go back to the original motivation of Yang for his introduction of the Yang-Baxter equation. He had been led to study certain elements of the group algebra of the symmetric group, and to expand them on the basis of permutations. They obtain some new results in the study of these objects by replacing elementary transpositions with generators of a Hecke algebra. They define a new basis of the Hecke algebra and a bilinear form on it. In some cases they give formulas for the coefficients of this basis when expanded in the usual basis. This involves Schubert and Grothendieck polynomials which were originally defined as canonical bases of the cohomology and Grothendieck rings of flag manifolds.