Bruhat order, smooth Schubert varieties, and hyperplane arrangements (Q958724)

Let \(w\in S_n\) be a permutation. Consider a polynomial \(P_w(q)=\sum_{u\leq w} q^{l(u)}\), where the sum is over all permutations \(u\in S_n\) below \(w\) in the strong Bruhat order. The polynomial \(P_w(q)\) is the Poincaré polynomial of the Schubert variety \(X_w=BwB/B\) in the flag variety \(\text{SL}(n,\mathbb{C})/B\). Define the inversion hyperplane arrangement \(\mathcal{A}_w\) as the collection of the hyperplanes \(x_i-x_j=0\) in \(\mathbb{R}^n\), for all inversions \(1\leq i< j\leq n\), \(w(i)>w(j)\). Let \(R_w(q)=\sum_r q^{d(r_0,r)}\) be the generating function that counts regions \(r\) of the arrangement \(\mathcal{A}_w\) according to the distance \(d(r_0,r)\) from the fixed initial region \(r_0\) with \((1,2,\dots,n)\in r_0\). The main result of the paper is the claim that \(P_w(q)=R_w(q)\) if and only if the Schubert variety \(X_w\) is smooth. In this case, an explicit factorization of the polynomial \(P_w(q)\) as a product of \(q\)-numbers \([e_1+1]_q\dots [e_n+1]_q\) is obtained. The numbers \(e_1,\dots,e_n\) are called exponents. They can be computed using the left-to-right maxima (aka records) of the permutation \(w\). Here the inversion graph \(G_w\), whose edges correspond to inversions in \(w\), is a chordal graph. The numbers \(e_1,\dots,e_n\) are the roots of the chromatic polynomial \(\chi_{G_w}(t)\) of the inversion graph. The polynomial \(\chi_{G_w}(t)\) is also the characteristic polynomial of the inversion hyperplane arrangement \(\mathcal{A}_w\). Chordal graphs and perfect elimination ordering are the main technical tools of the paper under review. In the final section, a generalization of the construction to other root systems is proposed. For an element \(w\) of the Weyl group, the arrangement \(\mathcal{A}_w\) is defined as the collection of hyperplanes \(\alpha(x)=0\) for all roots \(\alpha\) such that \(\alpha>0\) and \(w(\alpha)<0\). The authors conjecture that coincidence of polynomials \(P_w(q)\) and \(R_w(q)\) corresponds to rational smoothness of the Schubert variety \(X_w\) in the generalized flag variety \(G/B\).