The space of triangles, vanishing theorems, and combinatorics (Q1969472)

This article is devoted to some nice connections between the Young diagram \(D_3\), the configuration space \(\mathcal F_{3,n}\) and the \(\text{GL}(n)\)-representation \(S_{D_3,n}\) defined by the Schur-Weyl construction applied to \(D_3\). Here \(D_3\) is the generalized Young diagram whose columns correspond to the non-empty subsets of the set of row indices \(\{1,2,3\}\). The configuration space \(\mathcal F_{3,n}\) consists of all \(7\)-tuples \((p_1, p_2, p_3, l_1, l_2, l_3, P)\), where \(p_i\) are points on the lines \(l_j\) for \(i\neq j\), and the lines \(l_j\) are on the plane \(P\) in \(\mathcal P^{n-1}\). This space, also known as triangle space, has many interesting properties and has been extensively studied [see \textit{M. Bozek} and \textit{K. Drechsler}, Beitr. Algebra Geom. 20, 203-213 (1985; Zbl 0574.06002), and Math. Nachr. 99, 251-258 (1980; Zbl 0474.57009), \textit{A. Collino} and \textit{W. Fulton}, Mém. Soc. Math. Fr., Nouv. Sér. 38, 75-117 (1989; Zbl 0726.14006), \textit{W. Fulton} and \textit{R. MacPherson}, Ann. Math. (2) 139, 183-225 (1994; Zbl 0820.14037), \textit{P. Le Barz}, Duke Math. J. 57, 925-946 (1988; Zbl 0687.14042), \textit{J. Roberts} and \textit{R. Speiser}, Lect. Notes Math 862, 272-281 (1981; Zbl 0488.14014)]. The representation \(S_{D_3,n}\) is equal to \((\mathbb{C}^n)^{\otimes D_3}\gamma_{D_3}\), where \((\mathbb{C}^n)^{\otimes D_3}\) has one factor for each square of the diagram \(D_3\), and \(\gamma _{D_3}\) is the Young operation symmetrizing and anti-symmetrizing tensors according to the rows and columns of \(D_3\). Not surprisingly there has been a corresponding interest in these representations [see \textit{G. Murphy} and \textit{M. H. Peel}, J. Algebra 116, No.1, 143-154 (1988; Zbl 0695.20010), \textit{V. Reiner} and \textit{M. Shimozono}, J. Comb. Theory, Ser. A 70, No.1, 107-143 (1995; Zbl 0819.05058), J. Algebra 174, No.2, 489-522 (1995; Zbl 0835.20021), J. Comb. Theory Ser. A 82, No.1, 1-73 (1998; Zbl 0909.05049), \textit{D. J. Woodcock}, J. Algebra 165, No.3, 483-506 (1994; Zbl 0802.20037)]. In this article the representation \(S_{D_3,n}\) is realized as the sections of a line bundle on the triangle space \(\mathcal F_{3,n}\), and explicit character and dimension formulas are obtained, generalizing those of Weyl for irreducible representations. In the other direction it is shown that the Schur modules give a combinatorial construction of the space of sections of certain line bundles over the triangle space. The article illustrates nicely how Frobenius splitting, natural desingularizations, Lefschetz theorems and rational singularities can be used. It is worth mentioning that for the triangle space the general methods for desingularization of Bott-Samelson and Zelevinsky do not work, and the authors must resort to more complicated and special desingularizations.