On the combinatorics of string polytopes (Q2049443)

Context: \begin{itemize} \item The string polytope was introduced and studied by Berenstein-Zelevinsky, Littelmann (see [\textit{A. Berenstein} and \textit{A. Zelevinsky}, Invent. Math. 143, No. 1, 77--128 (2001; Zbl 1061.17006); Duke Math. J. 82, No. 3, 473--502 (1996; Zbl 0898.17006); \textit{P. Littelmann}, Transform. Groups 3, No. 2, 145--179 (1998; Zbl 0908.17010)]) as a generalization of Gelfand-Cetlin polytope -- a well-understood object [\textit{I. M. Gel'fand} and \textit{M. L. Tsetlin}, Dokl. Akad. Nauk SSSR, n. Ser. 71, 825--828 (1950; Zbl 0037.15301)]. Fix a complex connected reductive group, the polytope is determined by a choice of reduced word of the longest element in the Weyl group, and a dominant integral weight. \item The string polytope has important applications. For instance, in representation theory, it provided a combinatorial understanding of crystal bases [\textit{G. Lusztig}, J. Am. Math. Soc. 3, No. 2, 447--498 (1990; Zbl 0703.17008); \textit{M. Kashiwara}, Commun. Math. Phys. 133, No. 2, 249--260 (1990; Zbl 0724.17009)]. In algebraic geometry, the string polytope is used to study flag varieties, and it coincides with the Newton-Okounkov body. \item Though string polytopes have a lot of explicit expression, realizations, it is still difficult to study combinatorial properties such as facet structure, integrality, unimodular equivalences. \end{itemize} Content: It is concerned with string polytope of Lie type \(A\). More precisely, \begin{itemize} \item The authors completely answer the question when a string polytope is in the same unimodular equivalence classes as the Gelfand-Cetlin polytopes (Theorem 6.7). \item They also verify that the number of inequalities defining a string polytope is non-redundant (Proposition 4.6). \end{itemize} Key points: the number of faces of string polytopes can tell whether string polytopes are unimodular equivalent to the Gelfand-Cetlin polytope or not. Structure: \begin{itemize} \item Section 2, the authors review Gleizer-Postnikov's description of string cones. \item Section 3, they define notions of index, contraction, extension operators on reduced words, which will be used to describe the main theorem. \item Section 4, they show the non-redundancy of inequalities defining string polytopes. \item Section 5, they study the numbers of faces of the string cones. \item Section 6 and 7, they classify string polytopes that are unimodular equivalent to the Gelfand-Cetlin polytopes. \end{itemize}