MV-polytopes via affine buildings (Q616590)

For an algebraic group \(G\), Anderson introduced the notion of MV-polytopes as images of MV-cycles under the moment map of the affine Grassmannian. Another construction of MV-cycles can be obtained by using LS-galleries, a more discrete version of Littelmann's path model. It is known that both LS-galleries and MV-polytopes are combinatorial realizations of finite-dimensional representations of \(G\). The authors present a direct combinatorial construction of the MV-polytopes using LS-galleries. Their construction is linked to the retractions of the affine building and the Bott-Samelson variety corresponding to \(G\) leading to a type-independent definition of MV-polytopes not involving the tropical Plücker relations. Based on the proposed approach, the authors give new proofs for Kamnitzer's results about MV-polytopes and their relations with Lusztig and Kashiwara data.