Generalizing Tanisaki's ideal via ideals of truncated symmetric functions (Q1938796)

Let \(R=\mathbb{Z}[x_{1},\dots,x_{n}]\) be a polynomial ring in \(n\) variables over the integers \(\mathbb{Z}\). A symmetric function is a polynomial in \(R\) that is fixed by the natural action of the permutation group \(S_{n}\) on the variables \(\{x_{1},\dots,x_{n}\}\). These functions are fundamental objects in many areas of mathematics, including combinatorics, topology and algebraic geometry. In the paper under review the authors study truncated symmetric functions, i.e., polynomials in a proper subset of \(\{x_{1},\dots,x_{n}\}\) that are symmetric under the corresponding permutation subgroup. They show combinatorial identities relating two different kinds of truncated symmetric polynomials, namely elementary and complete symmetric polynomials. Furthermore they use truncated elementary symmetric functions to build a family of ideals \(I_{h}\) in \(R\) that are parameterized by Hessenberg functions \(h\) (equivalently Dyck paths or ample partitions). The ideals \(I_{h}\) generalize algebraically a family of ideals, commonly known as Tanisaki ideals, which is used in the Springer theory. This theory is an example of geometric representation theory that constructs representations of the symmetric group \(S_{n}\) on the cohomology of a family of varieties parameterized by partitions. The authors prove several properties of \(I_{h}\), including that if \(h>h'\) in the natural partial order on Dyck paths, then \(I_{h} \subset I_{h'}\), and construct a Gröbner basis for \(I_{h}\). They consider a second family of ideals \(J_{h}\) and prove that \(I_{h}=J_{h}\). Finally they show that the ideals \(I_{h}=J_{h}\) generalize the Tanisaki ideals both algebraically and geometrically, from Springer varieties to a family of nilpotent Hessenberg varieties.