Introduction to the theory of standard monomials. With notes by Peter Littelmann and Pradeep Shukla. Appendix A by V. Lakshmibai (Q2464136)

The starting point of the theory developed in the book under review is an article of \textit{W.V.D.~Hodge} [Proc. Camb. Philos. Soc. 39, 22--30 (1943; Zbl 0060.04107), see also \textit{W.V.D.~Hodge} and \textit{D.~Pedoe}, ``Methods of algebraic geometry'' (1952; Zbl 0048.14502)]. Here a remarkable basis of the homogeneous coordinate ring of a Schubert subvariety in a Grassmannian was constructed. The elements of this basis were called ``Standard Monomials'' in the Plücker coordinates, since they can be represented by ``Standard Tableaux'' in the sense of Young. It was natural to generalize Hodge's results to projective embeddings of other homogeneous spaces \(G/Q\), where \(G\) is a semisimple algebraic group and \(Q\) is its parabolic subgroup. In the early 70's C.~S.~Seshadri initiated this generalization and called it Standard Monomial Theory (SMT). The present text is based on a lecture course given by the author at Brandeis during the academic year 1983-84. The purpose of the course was to give an introduction to the series of papers by \textit{C.S.~Seshadri} in collaboration with \textit{V.~Lakshmibai} and \textit{C.~Musili} [Bull. Am. Math. Soc., New Ser. 1, 432--435 (1979; Zbl 0466.14020); Proc. Indian Acad. Sci., Sect. A 87, No. 2, 1--54 (1978; Zbl 0447.14011), ibid., Sect. A, Part III 88, No. 2, 93--177 (1979; Zbl 0447.14012), ibid., Sect. A, Part III 88, No. 4, 279--362 (1979; Zbl 0447.14013); J. Algebra 100, 462--557 (1986; Zbl 0618.14026)]. In the course only the case \(G=\text{SL}(n)\) is considered. This restriction allows to avoid technical difficulties and to explain very explicitly basic ideas and methods of the SMT. As applications of the theory the author describes the singular locus of a Schubert variety, proves the vanishing theorems for the cohomology of line bundles on Schubert varieties associated to dominant characters of a Borel subgroup \(B\), and describes relations between the SMT and the Classical Invariant Theory. The books contains two appendices. The first one (written by V.~Lakshmibai) begins with combinatorial results on lexicographic shellability for Bruhat order and their applications to Schubert varieties. The main objecties here are Cohen-Macaulay properties for Schubert varieties in \(\text{SL}(n)/Q\). In the second appendix the author gives a proof of the following result: for any semisimple simply connected algebraic group defined over an algebraically closed field any Schubert variety in \(G/B\) is normal. The course is written very clearly and may be strongly recommended as an introduction to the geometry of flag varieties and the SMT. The only disadvantage of the text is a huge number of misprints.