Towards generalized cohomology Schubert calculus via formal root polynomials (Q1707255)

The superb paper under review is quite (and probably unavoidably) technical. That is why the reviewer will not put a special effort to simplify the description of its content. Otherwise this short summary may turn useless for both non experts and specialists: the former because in any case would lack background, and the latter because the essential mathematical content of the paper would be lost behind excess of simplification. In any case, to save a minimum of friendly shape, let us begin this short summary as if it were a tale. Schubert calculus. At the very beginning was the intersection theory of the complex Grassmann manifolds \(G(k,n)\) parametrizing \(k\)-dimensional subspaces of \({\mathbb C}^n\). Grassmannians, however, are a special kind of flag varieties, which are in turn special kind of homogeneous projective varieties, i.e. quotient \(G/B\) of a complex connected semi-simple Lie group modulo the action of a Borel subgroup \(B\). Thus, nowadays, the location Schubert calculus has acquired a much broader meaning. Not only for Grassmannians, but on general flag varieties, and not only classical cohomology, but also quantum, equivariant or quantum-equivariant, up to its \(K\)-theory and its connective \(K\)-theory (a theory interpolating, in a suitable sense, the \(K\)-theory and the intersection theory of a homogeneous space). The paper under review puts itself in this very general framework using in a creative manner a new algebraic tool, what the authors call \textsl{formal root polynomials}, with the purpose of studying the elliptic cohomology of the homogeneous space \(G/B\): this means a cohomology theory where all the odd parts vanish and there is an invertible element \(h\in H^2\) inducing a complex orientation with the same formal group law as that of an elliptic curve. There is a correspondence between generalized cohomology theories and formal group laws, and in particular the authors investigate the \textsl{hyperbolic group law} introduced in Section 2.2. The corresponding Schubert calculus is so called by the authors \textsl{hyperbolic Schubert calculus.} and enables to study the elliptic cohomology of homogeneous spaces, extending previous work by Billey and Graham-Willems letting it to work uniformly in all Lie type. The definition of formal root polynomial is quite technical and is not worth to be recalled in the present review. However the idea is that of replacing, or rather extend, the notion of root polynomials heavily used by \textit{S. C. Billey} [Duke Math. J. 96, No. 1, 205--224 (1999; Zbl 0980.22018)] and by \textit{M. Willems} [Bull. Soc. Math. Fr. 132, No. 4, 569--589 (2004; Zbl 1087.19004)]. After introducing the formal root polynomial, whose definition depends on a reduced word for a Weyl group element, the main Theorem 3.10 states that indeed it does not depend on such a word provided that the formal group law is the hyperbolic one. Section 4 is devoted to applications: in particular the authors show how their techniques provide an efficient method to compute the transition matrix between two natural bases of the formal \textsl{Demazure algebra}, another gadget introduced and explained in Section 2. Section 5 is concerned with localization formulas in cohomology and \(K\)-theory, while section 6 is not only devoted to show further applications of root polynomials to compute Bott-Samelson classes, but also to propose a couple of conjectures in the hyperbolic Schubert calculus, based mainly on analogies and experimental evidence. The paper ends with a comprehensive reference list: among the key ones, the paper by Goresky, Kottwitz and MacPherson [\textit{M. Goresky} et al., Invent. Math. 131, No. 1, 25--83 (1998; Zbl 0897.22009)], the important 1974 paper by \textit{M. Demazure} [Ann. Sci. Éc. Norm. Supér. (4) 7, 53--88 (1974; Zbl 0312.14009)] on desingularization of generalized Schubert varieties, a couple of papers by Graham and Graham-Kumar on equivariant \(K\)-theory, and the papers by Billey and Willems, that inspired the research developed in this amazing step forward a generalized cohomology Schubert calculus.