A Hodge decomposition for the complex of injective words. (Q706067)

Let \(V\) be a \(\mathbb{C}\)-vector space, \(v_1,\dots,v_n\) a basis of \(V\) and \(\Gamma_r:=V^{\otimes r}\). Consider the linear map \(\partial_r\colon\Gamma_r\to\Gamma_{r-1}\) sending \(v_{i_1}\otimes\cdots\otimes v_{i_r}\) to \(\sum(-1)^{j-1}v_{i_1}\otimes\cdots\otimes\widehat{v_{i_j}}\otimes\cdots\otimes v_{i_r}\). One has \(\partial_{r+1}\partial_r=0\). The multilinear part \(M_r\) of \(\Gamma_r\) is the vector subspace generated by \(v_{i_1}\otimes\cdots\otimes v_{i_r}\) with \(i_1,\dots,i_r\) distinct (in this case, \((i_1,\dots,i_r)\) is an injective word with letters from the alphabet \(\{1,\dots ,n\}\)). Then \(M_\bullet=(M_r)_{r\in\mathbb{Z}}\) is a subcomplex of \((\Gamma_\bullet,\partial_\bullet)\). One knows that \(H_r(M_\bullet)=0\) for \(r\neq n\). \textit{V. Reiner} and \textit{P. Webb} [J. Pure Appl. Algebra 190, No. 1-3, 291-327 (2004; Zbl 1057.57003)] computed the top homology \(H_n(M_\bullet)\) as an \(S_n\)-module, where \(S_n\) is the symmetric group. In the paper under review, the authors refine the result of Reiner and Webb. Using the Eulerian idempotents of the group algebra \(\mathbb{C} S_n\), they decompose the complex \((M_\bullet,\partial_\bullet)\) into a direct sum of \(n\) subcomplexes of \(S_n\)-modules, getting a Hodge decomposition \(H_n(M_\bullet)=\bigoplus_{1\leq j\leq n}H_n^{(j)}(M_\bullet)\), and compute the \(S_n\)-module structure of each \(H_n^{(j)}(M_\bullet)\) (in particular, its dimension is equal to the number of derangements with exactly \(j\) cycles). The proof uses previous results of \textit{P. Hanlon} [Mich. Math. J. 37, No. 1, 105-124 (1990; Zbl 0701.16010)]. Second, the authors study the Laplacian \(\Lambda_\bullet\) associated to the complex \((M_\bullet,\partial_\bullet)\). Let \(\delta_r\colon M_r\to M_{r+1}\) be the linear map whose matrix with respect to the standard bases is the transpose of the matrix of \(\partial_{r+1}\colon M_{r+1}\to M_r\). The Laplacian \(\Lambda_r\colon M_r\to M_r\) is \(\delta_{r-1}\partial_r+\partial_{r+1}\delta_r\). The authors show that \(\Lambda_n\) is closely connected to the transition matrix for random to random shuffling of a deck of \(n\) cards and compute \(\Lambda_r\), for \(r<n\), in terms of \(\Lambda_n\). This computation allows them to show that a conjecture of \textit{J.-C. Uyemura-Reyes} [Random walk, semi-direct products and card shuffling, Ph. D. thesis, Stanford Univ. (2002)] implies that \(\Lambda_r\) has integral spectrum for all \(r\).