Flag manifolds over semifields (Q2065100)

In a sequel of papers, Lusztig initiated the study of flag manifolds \(\mathcal{B}(K)\), associated with arbitrary Kac-Moody root data, over arbitrary semifield \(K\) by generalizing the totally nonnegative flag manifold which corresponds to the case when \(K=\mathbb{R}_{>0}\). Lusztig and the authors of the article under review do not assume that a semifield \(K\) is equipped with an absorbing element \(0\), but one can always adjoin \(0\) to \(K\) as it is written in [\textit{G. Lusztig}, Represent. Theory 24, 397--402 (2020; Zbl 07253455)]. Lusztig also constructed the monoid \(\mathfrak{G}(K)\) over a semifield \(K\). In the article under review, the authors give another definition for the flag manifold \(\mathcal{B}(K)\) over an arbitrary semifield \(K\) associated with any Kac-Moody root datum. Then the authors show that their definition coincides with Lusztig's definition when \(K=\mathbb{R}_{>0}\), \(\mathbb{R}(t)_{>0}\), and \(\mathbb{Z}^{\textrm{trop}}\). \(\mathbb{Z}^{\textrm{trop}}\) is the restriction of the tropical semifield \(\mathbb{T}\) to \(\mathbb{Z}\). However, the authors call it the tropical semifield. The authors further prove that their definition has several desired properties: (1) the flag manifold \(\mathcal{B}(K)\) admits a canonical cell decomposition indexed by the pairs in the Weyl group, (2) \(\mathcal{B}(K)\) has a natural action of the monoid \(\mathfrak{G}(K)\), and (3) the cellular decomposition and the monoid action are compatible with the base change to another semifield. This extend the previous results on the totally nonnegative flag manifolds as well as the tropical flag manifolds. As one of main applications, the authors prove a conjecture of Lusztig on the duality of a totally nonnegative flag manifold (of finite type) posed in [\textit{G. Lusztig}, Q. J. Math. 72, No. 1--2, 31--49 (2021; Zbl 1475.20080), Conjecture 4.4].