Calculating the \(p\)-canonical basis of Hecke algebras (Q6063032)

Let \((W, S)\) be a Coxeter system which defines a Hecke algebra \(\mathcal{H}\), a \(\mathbb{Z}[v^{\pm 1}]\)-algebra with a basis indexed by \(W\) . The Hecke algebra has a standard basis as a deformation of the group ring \(\mathbb{Z}[W]\). In the seminal paper by \textit{D. Kazhdan} and \textit{G. Lusztig} [Invent. Math. 53, 165--184 (1979; Zbl 0499.20035)], the canonical basis of the associated Hecke algebra and for each pair \(y,x \in W\) the Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomial \(h_{y,x} \in \mathbb{Z}[v]\) as the entries appearing in the change of basis from the canonical to the standard basis are defined. The Hecke algebra admits a categorification, now referred to as the Hecke category. There is an isomorphism from the split Grothendieck group of this categorification to the Hecke algebra. This isomorphism sends the classes of indecomposable objects to the canonical basis, implying many interesting properties about the canonical basis. The Hecke category may also be defined over a field of characteristic \(p>0\). In this case, the classes of indecomposable objects are sent to a different basis of the Hecke algebra, which is called the \(p\)-canonical basis. In the paper under review, the authors describe an algorithm for computing the \(p\)-canonical basis of the Hecke algebra or one of its antispherical modules. This algorithm does not operate in the Hecke category directly, but rather uses a faithful embedding of the Hecke category inside a semisimple category to build a model for indecomposable objects and bases of their morphism spaces. Inside this semisimple category, objects are sequences of Coxeter group elements, and morphisms are matrices over a fraction field, making it quite amenable to computations. This strategy works for the full Hecke category over any base field, but in the antispherical case the authors must instead work over \(\mathbb{Z}_{(p)}\) and use an idempotent lifting argument to deduce the result for a field of characteristic \(p>0\). The authors also describe a less sophisticated algorithm which is much more suited to the case of finite groups.