Lattice polytopes associated to certain Demazure modules of \(sl_{n+1}\) (Q1818373)

There is a two-part programme to prove the existence of degenerations of Schubert varieties of \(SL(n)\) into toric varieties, see for instance [\textit{N. Gonciulea}, and \textit{V. Lakshmibai}, Transform. Groups 1, 215-248 (1996; Zbl 0909.14028)]. Here the authors present results concerning the first of the two parts. They prove that for a certain class of elements \(w\) of the Weyl group of \(sl_{n+1}\), there exists a lattice polytope \(\Delta_i^w \subset {\mathbb{R}}^{l(w)}\), such that for every dominant weight \(\lambda = \sum_{i = 1}^na_iw_i\) where the \(w_i\) are fundamental weights the number of lattice points in the Minkowski sum \(\Delta_\lambda^w = \sum_{i=1}^na_i\Delta_i^w\) is equal to the dimension of the Demazure module \(E_w(\lambda)\) (for its definition see [\textit{M. Demazure}, Bull. Sci. Math., II. Ser. 98, 163-172 (1975; Zbl 0365.17005)]. They also present an explicit formula which gives the character of \(E_w(\lambda)\). For \(w = w_0\) the longest element of the Weyl group other polytopes satisfying the same condition have been constructed by \textit{A. D. Berenstein} and \textit{A. Zelevinsky} [J. Geom. Phys. 5, 453-472 (1988; Zbl 0712.17006)] and \textit{P. Littelmann} [Transform. Groups 3, 145-179 (1998; Zbl 0908.17010)]. The authors of the present paper believe that their construction can be generalized to every simple algebraic group.