Singularities of Richardson varieties (Q395070)

Schubert varieties are Borel orbits in homogeneous spaces. The study of their geometric properties is old and well developed. Richardson varieties are defined as intersections of Schubert varieties and `opposite' Schubert varieties, they are also key objects in geometry. The authors prove a very general statement claiming that essentially all questions concerning singularities of Richardson varieties reduce to corresponding questions about Schubert varieties. The properties/quantities reduced from Schubert varieties to Richardson varieties include smoothness and the property `Cohen-Macaulay with rational singularities', as well as multiplicity and H-polynomial. The authors give two versions of their elementary proof, one in the language of algebraic groups and one that avoids it.